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ROLLO  ON  THE  RHINE, 


BV 


JACOB    ABBOTT. 


NEW  YORK: 

SHELDON  &  CO.,  667  BROADWAI 

AND  214  &  216  MERCER  ST., 

G&1HD  CjSMTIUI.  liOTBL 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

JACOB     ABBOTT, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 


PRINCIPAL   PERSONS  OF  THE   STORY. 

Rollo  ;  twelve  years  of  age. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holiday  ;  Rollo's  father  and  mother,  travel- 
ling in  Europe. 
Thanny  ;  Rollo's  younger  brother. 

Jane;  Rollo's  cousin,  adopted  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holiday. 
Mr.  George  ;  a  young  gentleman,  Rollo's  uncle. 


3- 


ONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

I.  —  The  Appkoai.ii  ro  Cologne, 
II.  —  The  Unfinished  Cathedral, 

III.  —  The  Galleries, 

IV.  —  Travelling  on  the  Shine, 
V.  —  The  Sieben  Gebirguj.?,    . 

VI.  —  Roland's  Tower, 
VII.  —  Rollo's  List,      .        .        . 
VIII.  —  A  Sabbath  on  the  RhiNE, 
IX.  —  Ehrenbreitstein, 
X.  —  Rollo's  Letter,         . 
XL  — The  Raft, 
XII.  —  Dinner,        .... 

XIII.  —  Bingen,        .... 

XIV.  —  The  Ruin  in  the  Garden, 
XV.  —  Rheinstein, 

Conclusion. 


TAOS 

13 

28 

.     44 

.     60 

.     77 

.     95 

.  107 

.  117 

.  135 

141 

146 

163 

.  185 

.  194 

.  202 

2!  9 


ENGRAVINGS. 


ROLANDSECK    AND    DliACHENFELS. FRONTISriECE. 

The  Ride, 12 

Cologne  in  Sight, 19 

The  Beggar,        .         . 31 

Minnie's  Roguery, 51 

Towing, 63 

Donkey  Riding, 75 

The  Students,     ........  114 

The  Nun, 122 

The  Emigrants,  ........  132 

rollo  on  the  raft, 163 

Dinner  on  the  Rhine, 173 

Minnie, 190 

The  Night  Journey,          ..,.-..  218 

(10) 


ROLLO  ON  THE  RHINE. 

Chapter  I. 
The  Approach  to  Cologne. 

A  hirdseye  view  of  Europe  Switzerland  ;  Tyrol  ;  Savoy. 

IF  a  man  were  to  be  raised  in  a  balloon  high 
enough  above  the  continent  of  Europe  to  sur- 
vey the  whole  of  it  at  one  view,  he  would  see  the 
land  gradually  rising  from  the  borders  of  the  sea 
on  every  side,  towards  a  portion  near  the  centre, 
where  he  would  behold  a  vast  region  of  moun- 
tainous country,  with  torrents  of  water  running 
down  the  slopes  and  through  the  valleys  of  it, 
while  the  summits  were  tipped  with  perpetual 
snow.  The  central  part  of  this  mass  of  moun- 
tains forms  what  is  called  Switzerland,  the  eastern 
part  is  the  Tyrol,  and  the  western  Savoy.  But 
though  the  men  who  live  on  these  mountains  have 
thus  made  three  countries  out  of  them,  the  whole 
region  is  in  nature  one.  It  constitutes  one  mighty 
mass  of  mountainous  land,  which  is  lifted  up  so 
high  into  the  air  that  all  the  summits  rise  into 

(13) 


14  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  four  great  rivers  of  Europe.  Their  courses. 

the  regions  of  intense  and  perpetual  cold,  and 
so  condense  continually,  from  the  atmosphere, 
inexhaustible  quantities  of  rain  and  snow. 

The  water  which  falls  upon  this  mountainous 
region  must  of  course  find  its  way  to  the  sea.  In 
doing  so  the  thousands  of  smaller  torrents  unite 
with  each  other  into  larger  and  larger  streams, 
until  at  length  they  make  four  mighty  rivers  — 
the  largest  and  most  celebrated  in  Europe.  All 
the  streams  of  the  southern  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains form  one  great  river,  which  flows  east  into 
the  Adriatic.  This  river  is  the  Po.  On  the 
western  side  the  thousands  of  mountain  torrents 
combine  and  form  the  Rhone,  which,  making  a 
great  bend,  turns  to  the  southward,  and  flows  into 
the  Mediterranean.  On  the  eastern  side  the 
water  can  find  no  escape  till  it  has  traversed  the 
whole  continent  to  the  eastward,  and. reached  the 
Black  Sea.  This  stream  is  the  Danube.  And 
finally,  on  the  north  the  immense  number  of  cas- 
cades and  torrents  which  come  out  from  the  gla- 
ciers, or  pour  down  the  ravines,  or  meander 
through  the  valleys,  or  issue  from  the  lakes,  of 
the  northern  slope  of  the  mountains,  combine  at 
Basle,  and  flow  north  across  the  whole  continent, 
nearly  six  hundred  miles,  to  the  North  Sea. 
This  river  is  the  Rhine. 

All  this,  which  I  have  thus  been  explaining, 


The    Approach    to    Cologne.     15 

The  River  Rhine.  Its  fertile  intervals. 

may  be  seen  very  clearly  if  you  turn  to  any  map 
of  Europe,  and  find  the  mountainous  region  in  the 
centre,  and  then  trace  the  courses  of  the  four 
great  rivers,  as  I  have  described  them. 

It  would  seem  that  the  country  through  which 
the  River  Rhine  now  flows  was  at  first  very  un- 
even, presenting  valleys  and  broad  depressions, 
which  the  waters  of  the  river  filled,  thus  forming 
great  shallow  lakes,  that  extended  over  very  con- 
siderable tracts  of  country.  In  process  of  time, 
however,  these  lakes  became  filled  with  the  sedi- 
ment which  was  brought  down  by  the  river,  and 
thus  great  flat  plains  of  very  rich  and  level  land 
were  formed.  At  every  inundation  of  the  river, 
of  course,  these  plains,  or  intervals,  as  they  are 
sometimes  called,  would  be  overflowed,  and  fresh 
deposits  would  be  laid  upon  them  ;  so  that  in  the 
course  of  ages  the  surface  of  them  would  rise 
several  feet  above  the  ordinary  level  of  the  river. 
In  fact  they  would  continue  to  rise  in  this  way 
until  they  were  out  of  the  reach  of  the  highest 
inundations. 

Immense  plains  of  the  most  fertile  land,  which 
seem  to  have  been  formed  in  this  way,  exist  at 
(he  present  time  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  at 
various  places.  These  plains  are  all  very  highly 
cultivated,  and  are  rich  and  beautiful  beyond  de- 
scription.    To  see  them,  however,  it  is  necussarj 


1j  Rollo    on    the    Rhine. 

The  various  regions  through  which  the  Rhine  flows.      The  wine  districts. 

to  travel  over  them  in  a  diligence,  or  post  chaise, 
or  by  railway  trains  ;  for  in  sailing  up  and  down 
the  river,  along  the  margin  of  them,  in  a  steam- 
boat, you  are  not  high  enough  to  overlook  them. 
You  see  nothing  all  the  way,  in  these  places,  but 
a  low,  green  bank  on  each  side  of  the  river,  with 
a  fringe  of  trees  and  shrubbery  along  the  margin 
of  it. 

For  about  one  hundred  miles  of  its  course, 
however,  near  the  central  portion  of  it,  the  river 
flows  through  a  very  wild  and  mountainous  dis- 
trict of  country,  or  rather  through  a  district 
which  was  once  wild,  though  now,  even  in  the 
steepest  slopes  and  declivities,  it  is  cultivated  like 
a  garden.  The  reason  why  these  mountainous 
regions  are  so  highly  cultivated  is  because  the 
soil  and  climate  are  such  that  they  produce  the 
best  and  most  delicious  grapes  in  the  world. 
They  have  consequently,  from  time  immemorial, 
been  inhabited  by  a  dense  population.  Every 
foot  of  ground  where  there  is  room  for  a  vine  to 
grow  is  valuable,  and  where  the  slope  was  origi- 
nally steep  and  rocky,  the  peasants  of  former 
ages  have  gathered  out  the  rocks  and  stones,  and 
built  walls  of  them  to  terrace  up  the  land.  The 
villages  of  these  peasants,  too,  are  seen  every 
where  nestling  in  the  valleys,  and  clinging  to  the 
sides  of  the  hills,  while  the  summits  of  almost  all 


The  Approach  to  Cologne.  17 

Mr.  George's  plan.  A  tour  in  Germany.  Approaching  Cologne. 

the  elevations  are  crowned  with  the  ruins  of  old 
feudal  castles  built  by  barons,  or  chiefs,  or  kings, 
or  military  bishops  of  ancient  times,  famous  in 
history.  This  picturesque  portion  of  the  river, 
which  extends  from  Bonn,  a  little  above  Cologne, 
to  Mayence,  —  which  towns  you  will  readily  find 
on  almost  any  map  of  Europe,  —  was  the  part 
which  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  particularly  desired 
to  see.  When  they  left  Switzerland  they  intended 
to  come  down  the  river,  and  see  the  scenery  in 
descending.  But  Mr.  George  met  some  friends 
of  his  on  the  frontier,  who  persuaded  him  to  make 
a  short  tour  with  them  in  Germany,  and  so  come 
to  the  Rhine  at  Cologne. 

"  We  can  then,"  said  he  to  Rollo,  "  go  up  the 
river,  and  see  it  in  ascending,  which  I  think  is 
the  best  way.  When  we  get  through  all  the  fine 
scenery,  —  which  we  shall  do  at  Mayence, — we 
can  then  go  up  to  Strasbourg,  and  take  the  railroad 
there  for  Paris  —  the  same  way  that  we  came." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  shall  like  that." 

Rollo  liked  it  simply  because  it  would  make 
the  journey  longer. 

When  at  length,  at  the  end  of  the  tour  in  Ger- 
many, our  travellers  were  approaching  Cologne 
on  the  Rhine,  Rollo  began  to  look  out,  some  miles 
before  they  reached  it,  to  watch  for  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  the  town.  He  had  been  riding  in 
2 


18  EOLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  in  the  diligence.      Rollo's  description  of  the  city 

the  coupe  of  the  diligence  *  with  his  uncle ;  but 
now,  in  order  that  he  might  see  better,  he  had 
changed  his  place,  and  taken  a  seat  on  the  ban- 
quette. The  banquette  is  a  seat  on  the  top  of 
the  coach,  and  though  it  is  covered  above,  it  ia 
open  in  front,  and  so  it  affords  an  excellent  view. 
Mr.  George  remained  in  the  coupe,  being  very 
much  interested  in  reading  his  guide  book. 

At  length  Rollo  called  out  to  tell  his  uncle 
that  the  city  was  in  view.  The  windows  of  the 
coupe  were  open,  so  that  by  leaning  over  and 
looking  down  he  could  speak  to  his  uncle  without 
any  difficulty. 

Mr.  George  was  so  busy  reading  his  guide 
book  that  he  paid  little  attention  to  what  Rollo 
said. 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  calling  louder, 
"  I  can  see  the  city  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  it  is  a 
church  with  a  great  square  tower,  and  something 
very  singular  on  the  top  of  it." 

Mr.  George  still  continued  his  reading. 

"  There  is  a  spire  on  the  top  of  the  church," 
continued  Rollo,  "  but  it  is  bent  down  on  one 
side  entirely,  as  if  it  had  half  blown  over." 

"  0,  no,"  said  Mr.  George,  still  continuing  to 
read. 

•  The  stage  coaches  on  the  continent  of  Europe  are  called 
diligences. 


The    Approach    to    Cologne.     10 

Viewing  Cologne  from  the  diligence. 

"  It  really  is,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  wish  you  would 
look,  uncle  George.  It  is  something  very  singu- 
lar indeed." 


COLOGNE   IN   SIGHT. 


Mr.  George  yielded  at  length  to  these  impor- 
tunities, and  looked  out.  The  country  around  in 
every  direction  was  one  vast  plain,  covered  with 
fields  of  grain,  luxuriant  and  beautiful  beyond 


20  R  0  L  L  0      ON     THE      R  II  I  N  E  . 

Singular  appearance  of  the  fields.  Rollo's  companion. 

description.  It  was  without  any  fences  or  other 
divisions  except  such  as  were  produced  by  differ- 
ent kinds  of  cultivation,  so  that  the  view  extended 
interminably  in  almost  every  direction.  There 
were  rows  and  copses  of  trees  here  and  there, 
giving  variety  and  life  to  the  view,  and  from 
among  them  were  sometimes  to  be  seen  the  spires 
of  distant  villages.  In  the  distance,  too,  in  the 
direction  in  which  Rollo  pointed,  lay  the  town  of 
Cologne.  The  roofs  of  the  houses  extended  over 
a  very  wide  area,  and  among  them  there  was  seen 
a  dark  square  tower,  very  high,  and  crowned,  as 
Rollo  had  said,  with  what  seemed  to  be  a  spire, 
only  it  was  bent  over  half  way  ;  and  there  it  lay 
at  an  angle  at  which  no  spire  could  possibly  stand. 

"  What  can  it  mean  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  I  am  sure  1  do  not  know,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Next  to  Rollo,  on  the  banquette,  was  seated  a 
young  man,  who  had  mounted  up  there  about  an 
hour  before,  though  Rollo  had  not  yet  spoken  to 
him.  Rollo  now,  however,  turned  to  him,  and 
asked  him,  in  English,  if  he  spoke  English. 

The  young  man  smiled  and  shook  his  head, 
implying  that  he  did  not  understand. 

Rollo  then  asked  him,  in  French,  if  he  spoke 
French. 

The  young  man  said,  "  Nein."  * 

*  Pronounced  nine 


The    Approach    to    Cologne.     21 

Talking  German.  What  it  was  that  Rollo  saw. 

Rollo  knew  that  nein  was  the  German  word 
for  no,  and  he  presumed  that  the  language  of  his 
fellow-traveller  was  German.  So  he  pointed  to 
the  steeple,  and  asked,  — 

"  Was  ist  das  ?  " 

This  phrase,  Was  *  ist  das  ?  is  the  German  of 
What  is  that?  Rollo  knew  very  little  of  Ger- 
man, but  he  had  learned  this  question  long  before, 
having  had  occasion  to  ask  it  a  great  many  times. 
It  is  true  he  seldom  or  never  could  understand 
the  answers  he  got  to  it,  but  that  did  not  prevent 
him  from  asking  it  continually  whenever  there 
was  occasion.  He  said  it  was  some  satisfaction 
to  find  that  the  people  could  understand  his  ques- 
tion, even  if  he  could  not  understand  what  they 
said  in  reply  to  it. 

The  man  immediately  commenced  an  earnest 
explanation  ;  but  Rollo  could  not  understand  one 
word  of  it,  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  truth  of  the  case  was,  that  the  supposed 
leaning  spire,  which  Rollo  saw,  was  in  reality  a 
monstrous  crane  that  was  mounted  on  one  of  the 
towers  of  the  celebrated  unfinished  cathedral  at 
Cologne.  This  cathedral  was  commenced  about 
six  hundred  years  ago,  and  was  meant  to  be  the 
grandest  edifice  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  They 
laid  out  the  plan  of  it  five  hundred  feet  long,  and 

*  The  ic  is  pronounced  like  v. 


22  ROLLO      ON      THE     R  H  I N  E. 

Measuring  the  church. 

two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide,  and  designed  to 
carry  up  the  towers  and  spires  five  hundred  feet 
high.  You  can  see  now  how  long  this  church 
was  to  be  by  going  out  into  the  road,  or  to  any 
other  smooth  and  level  place,  and  there  measur- 
ing off  two  hundred  and  fifty  paces  by  walking. 
The  pace  —  that  is,  the  long  step  —  of  a  boy  of 
ten  or  twelve  years  old  is  probably  about  two 
feet.  That  of  a  full  grown  man  is  reckoned  at 
three  feet.  So  that  by  walking  off,  by  long  steps, 
till  you  have  counted  two  hundred  and  fifty  of 
them,  you  can  see  how  long  this  church  was  to 
be  ;  and  then  by  turning  a  corner  and  measuring 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  paces  in  a  line  at 
right  angles  to  the  first,  you  will  see  how  wide  it 
was  to  be.  To  walk  entirely  round  such  an  area 
as  this  would  be  nearly  a  third  of  a  mile. 

The  church  was  laid  out  and  begun,  and  during 
the  whole  generation  of  the  workmen  that  began 
it,  the  building  was  prosecuted  with  all  the  means 
and  money  that  could  be  procured ;  and  when 
that  generation  passed  away,  the  next  continued 
the  work,  until,  at  length,  in  about  a  hundred 
years  it  was  so  far  advanced  that  a  portion  of  it 
could  have  a  roof  put  over  it,  and  be  consecrated 
as  a  church.  They  still  went  on,  for  one  or  two 
centuries  more,  until  they  had  carried  up  the 
walls  to  a  considerable  height  in  many  parts,  and 


The  Approach  to  Cologne.  23 

The  building  is  interrupted. 

Lad  raised  one  of  the  towers  to  an  elevation 
of  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  When  the 
work  had  advanced  thus  far  the  government  of 
Holland,  in  the  course  of  some  of  the  wars  in 
which  they  were  engaged,  closed  the  mouth  of 
the  Rhine,  so  that  the  ships  of  Cologne  could  no 
more  go  up  and  down  to  get  out  to  sea.  This 
they  could  easily  do,  for  the  country  of  Holland 
is  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Dutch  government  was  at  that  time  extremely 
powerful.  They  had  strong  fleets  and  great  for- 
tresses at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  thus  they 
could  easily  control  the  navigation  of  it.  Thus 
the  merchants  of  Cologne  could  no  more  import 
goods  from  foreign  lands  for  other  people  to  come 
there  and  buy,  but  the  inhabitants  were  obliged 
to  send  to  Holland  to  purchase  what  they 
required  for  themselves.  The  town,  therefore, 
declined  greatly  in  wealth  and  prosperity,  and  no 
more  money  could  be  raised  for  carrying  on  the 
work  of  the  cathedral. 

At  the  time  when  the  work  was  interrupted 
the  builders  were  engaged  chiefly  on  one  of  the 
lowers,  which  they  had  carried  up  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet.  The  stones  which  were 
used  for  this  tower  were  very  large,  and  in  order 
to  hoist  them  up  the  workmen  used  a  monstrous 
crane,  which  was   reared   on   the   summit  of  it. 


24  ROLLO      ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  crane.  Hoisting  the  stones.  Banger. 

This  crane  was  made  of  timbers  rising  obliquelj 
from  a  revolving  platform  in  the  centre,  and 
meeting  in  a  point  which  projected  beyond  the 
wall  in  such  a  manner  that  a  chain  from  the  end 
of  it,  hanging  freely,  would  descend  to  the  ground. 
The  stones  which  were  to  go  up  were  then  fas- 
tened to  this  chain,  and  hoisted  up  by  machinery. 
When  they  were  raised  high  enough,  that  is,  just 
above  the  edge  of  the  wall,  the  whole  crane  was 
turned  round  upon  its  platform,  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  bring  the  stone  in  over  the  wall ;  and  then 
it  was  let  down  into  the  place  which  had  been 
prepared  to  receive  it. 

When  the  work  on  the  cathedral  was  suspended 
on  account  of  the  want  of  funds,  the  men  left  this 
crane  on  the  top  of  the  tower,  because  they  hoped 
to  be  able  to  resume  the  work  again  before  long. 
But  years  and  generations  passed,  and  the  pros- 
pect did  not  mend  ;  and  at  last  the  old  crane, 
which  in  its  lofty  position  was  exposed  to  all 
the  storms  and  tempests  of  the  sky,  of  course  be- 
gan gradually  to  decay.  It  is  true  it  was  pro- 
tected as  much  as  possible  by  a  sort  of  casing 
made  around  it,  to  shelter  it  from  the  weather  ; 
but  notwithstanding  this,  in  the  course  of  several 
centuries  it  became  so  unsound  that  there  be* 
gan  to  be  danger  that  it  might  fall.  The  au- 
thorities of  the  town,  therefore,  decided  to  take 


The    Approach    to    Cologne.     25 

TV.&  crane  taken  down.  The  thunder  storm.  A  new  crane.    ■ 

it  down,  intending  to  postpone  putting  up  a  new 
one  until  the  work  of  finishing  the  cathedral 
should  be  resumed,  if  indeed  it  ever  should  be 
resumed. 

The  people  of  the  town  were  very  sorry  to  see 
the  crane  taken  down.  It  had  stood  there,  like 
a  leaning  spire,  upon  the  top  of  the  cathedral, 
from  their  earliest  childhood,  and  from  the  ear- 
liest childhood,  in  fact,  of  their  fathers  and  grand- 
fathers before  them.  Besides,  the  taking  down  of 
the  crane  seemed  to  be,  in  some  sense,  an  indica- 
tion that  the  thought  of  ever  finishing  the  cathe- 
dral was  abandoned.  This  made  them  still  more 
uneasy,  and  a  short  time  afterwards  a  tremendous 
thunder  storm  occurred,  and  this  the  people  con- 
sidered as  an  expression  of  the  displeasure  of 
Heaven  at  the  impiety  of  forsaking  such  a  work, 
and  as  a  warning  to  them  to  put  up  the  crane 
again.  So  a  new  crane  was  made,  and  mounted 
on  the  tower  as  before,  and  being  encased  and 
enclosed  like  the  other,  it  had  at  a  distance  the 
appearance  of  a  leaning  spire,  and  it  was  this 
which  had  attracted  Rollo's  attention  in  his  ap- 
proach to  Cologne. 

Within  a  few  years,  on  account  of  the  opening 
again  of  the  navigation  of  the  Rhine,  and  other 
causes,  the  city  of  Cologne,  with  all  the  surround- 
ing country,  has  been  returning   to   its  former 


2u  ROLLO     ON     THE     EhI-NE. 

The  building  resumed.  Exploring. 

prosperity,  and  the  plan  of  finishing  the  cathedral 
has  been  resumed.  The  government  of  Prussia 
takes  a  great  interest  in  the  undertaking,  and  the 
kings  and  princes  of  other  countries  in  Germany 
make  contributions  to  it.  A  socioty  has  been 
organized,  too,  to  collect  funds  for  this  purpose 
all  over  Europe.  More  than  a  million  of  dollars 
have  already  been  raised,  and  the  work  of  com- 
pleting the  cathedral  has  been  resumed  in  good 
earnest,  and  is  now  rapidly  going  on. 

All  this  Rollo's  fellow-traveller  attempted  to 
explain  to  him  ;  but  as  he  spoke  in  German, 
Rollo  did  not  understand  him. 

When  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  reached  their 
hotel,  and  had  got  fairly  established  in  their 
room,  Mr.  George  took  his  cane  and  prepared  to 
"go  exploring,"  as  he  called  it. 

"  Well,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "  what  shall  we  go  to 
sec  first  ?  " 

"  I  want  to  go  and  see  the  cathedral,"  replied 
Rollo. 

"  The  cathedral  ?  "  said  Mr.  George.  "  I  am 
surprised  at  that.  You  don't  usually  care  mudi 
about  churches." 

"  But  this  does  not  look  much  like  a  church," 
said  Rollo.  "  I  saw  the  end  of  it  as  we  came 
into  the  town.  It  looks  like  a  range  of  cliffs 
rising  high  into  the  air,  with  grass  and  bushes 


The  Approach  to  Cologne.  27 

How  the  cathedral  looks. 

growing  on  the  top  of  them,  and  wolves  and 
bears  reaching  out  their  heads  and  looking 
down." 

Mr.  George  complied  with  Hollo's  request,  and 
went  to  see  the  cathedral  first.  The  adventures 
which  the  travellers  met  with  on  the  excursion 
will  be  described  in  the  next  chapter. 


28  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

A  commissioner.  Pleasure  travelling.  Tbe  guides. 


Chapter    II, 
The    Unfinished   Cathedral. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  issued  from 
the  door  of  their  hotel  into  the  street,  which  was 
very  narrow  and  without  sidewalks,  so  that  they 
were  obliged  to  walk  in  the  middle  of  it,  a  young 
man,  plainly  but  neatly  dressed,  came  up  to  them 
from  behind,  and  said  something  to  them  in  Ger- 
man. He  was  what  is  called  a  commissioner,  and 
he  was  coming  to  offer  to  act  as  their  guide  in 
seeing  the  town. 

Nearly  all  the  travelling  on  the  Rhine  is  pleas- 
ure travelling.  The  strangers  consequently,  who 
arrive  at  any  town  or  city  by  the  steamboats  and 
by  railway,  come,  almost  all  of  them,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  seeing  the  churches  and  castles,  and  other 
wonders  of  the  place,  and  not  to  transact  busi- 
ness ;  and  in  every  town  there  is  a  great  number 
of  persons  whose  employment  it  is  to  act  as  guides 
in  showing  these  things.  These  men  hover  about 
the  doors  of  the  hotels,  and  gather  in  front  of  all 
the  celebrated  churches,  and  in  all  public  places 


The  Unfinished    Cathedral.    29 

The  commissioner  offers  his  services. 

where  travellers  are  expected  to  go  ;  and  as  soon 
as  they  see  a  gentleman,  or  a  party  of  gentlemen 
and  ladies,  coming  out  of  their  hotel,  or  approach- 
ing any  place  of  public  interest,  they  immediately 
come  up  to  them,  and  offer  their  services.  Some- 
times their  services  are  valuable,  and  the  travel- 
ler is  very  ready  to  avail  himself  of  them,  espe- 
cially when  in  any  particular  town  there  is  a 
great  deal  to  see,  and  he  has  but  little  time  to  see 
it.  At  other  times,  however,  it  is  much  pleas- 
anter  to  go  alone  to  the  remarkable  places,  as  a 
map  of  the  city  will  enable  any  one  to  find  them 
very  easily,  and  the  guide  book  explains  them  in 
a  much  more  satisfactory  manner  than  any  of 
these  commissioners  can  do  it. 

The  commissioners  generally  speak  French, 
English,  and  German,  and  after  trying  one  of 
these  tongues  upon  the  strangers  whom  they  ac- 
cost, and  finding  that  they  are  not  understood, 
they  try  another  and  another  until  they  suc- 
ceed. 

The  commissioner  in  this  case  addressed  Mr. 
George  first  in  German.  Mr.  George  said, 
"Nein"  meaning  no,  and  walked  on. 

The  commissioner  followed  by  his  side,  and  be- 
gan to  talk  in  French,  enumerating  the  various 
churches  and  other  objects  of  interest  in  Cologue, 
and  offering  to  go  and  show  them. 


30  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

His  importunities.  Unsuccessful.  He  goes  away. 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  am  acquainted  with 
the  town,  and  I  have  no  need  of  a  guide." 

Mr.  George  had  studied  the  map  aud  the  guide 
book,  until  he  knew  the  town  quite  well  enough 
for  all  his  purposes. 

"  You  speak  English,  perhaps,"  said  the  com- 
missioner, and  then  proceeded  to  repeat  what  ho 
had  said  before,  in  broken  English.  He  supposed 
that  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  English  people, 
and  that  they  would  be  more  likely  to  engage 
him  as  a  guide,  if  they  found  that  he  could  explain 
the  wonders  to  them  in  their  own  language. 

Mr.  George  said,  "  No,  no,  I  do  not  wish  for  a 
guide." 

"  Dere  is  die  charts  of  St.  Ursula,"  said  the 
commissioner,  persisting,  "  and  die  grand  towers 
of  die  gross  St.  Martin,  which  is  vare  bu'ful." 

Mr.  George  finding  that  refusals  did  no  good, 
determined  to  take  no  further  notice  of  the  com- 
missioner, and  so  began  to  talk  to  Rollo,  walking 
on  all  the  time.  The  commissioner  continued  for 
some  time  to  enumerate  the  churches  and  other 
public  buildings,  which  he  could  show  the  stran- 
gers if  they  would  but  put  themselves  under  his 
guidance  ;  but  when  at  length  he  found  that  they 
would  not  listen  to  him,  he  went  away. 

Yery  soon  an  old  beggar  man  came  limping 
along  on  a  crutch,  with  a  countenance  haggard 


The    Unfinished    Cathedral.    31 

A  pertinacious  beggar. 

and  miserable,  and,  advancing  to  them,  held 
out  his  cap  for  alms.  Mr.  George,  who  thought 
it  was  not  best  to  give  to  beggars  in  the  streets 
was  going  on  without  regarding  him  ;  but  the 


The  Beggar. 


man  hobbled  on  by  the  side  of  the  strangers,  and 
seemed  about  to  be  as  pertinacious  as  the  com- 
missioner. They  went  on  so  for  a  little  distance, 
when  at  length,  just  as  the  man  was  about  giving 


32  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Sly  charity.  The  beggar  gone.  A  batz. 

up  in  despair,  Rollo  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket, 
and  feeling  among  the  money  there,  happened  to 
bring  up  a  small  copper  coin,  which  he  at  once 
and  instinctively  dropped  into  the  beggar's  cap. 
He  performed  the  movement  a  little  slyly,  so  that 
Mr.  George  did  not  see  him.  This  he  was  able 
to  do  from  the  fact  that  the  beggar  was  on  his 
eide,  and  not  on  Mr.  George's,  and,  moreover,  a 
little  behind. 

As  soon  as  the  man  received  the  coin,  he  took 
it,  put  the  cap  on  his  head,  and  fell  back  out  of 
view. 

"  I  am  glad  he  is  gone,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  I 
was  afraid  he  would  follow  us  half  through  the 
town." 

Rollo  laughed. 

"What  is  it?"  said  Mr.  George.  "What 
makes  you  laugh  ?  " 

"  Why,  the  fact  is,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  gave  him  a 
batz." 

"  Ah  !  "  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  or  something  like  a  batz, 
that  I  had  in  my  pocket." 

A  batz  is  a  small  Swiss  coin,  of  the  value  of  a 
fifth  of  a  cent.  Rollo  had  become  familiar  with 
this  money  in  the  course  of  his  travels  in  Swit- 
zerland, but  he  did  not  yet  know  the  names  of 
the  Prussian  coins.     The  money  which  he  gave 


The   Unfinished    Cathedral.    33 

Jlollo's  way.  Another  commissioner.  Narrow  streets, 

the  beggar  was  really  what  they  called  a  pfen- 
?iige.* 

Rollo  supposed  that  his  uncle  would  not  quite 
approve  of  his  giving  the  beggar  this  money  ;  but 
as  he  never  liked  to  have  any  secrecy  or  conceal- 
ment in  what  he  did,  he  preferred  to  tell  him. 
This  is  always  the  best  way. 

As  soon  as  the  beggar  had  gone,  another  com- 
missioner came  to  offer  his  services.  This  time, 
however,  Mr.  George,  after  once  telling  the  man 
that  he  did  not  wish  for  his  services,  took  no  fur- 
ther  notice  of  him  ;  and  so  he  soon  went  away. 

The  streets  of  Cologne  are  exceedingly  narrow, 
and  there  are  no  sidewalks  —  or  scarcely  any. 
In  one  place  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  passed  through 
a  street  which  was  so  narrow,  that,  standing  in 
the  middle  and  extending  his  hands,  Mr.  George 
could  touch  the  buildings  at  the  same  time  on 
each  side.  And  yet  it  seemed  that  carriages 
were  accustomed  to  pass  through  this  street,  as 
it  was  paved  regularly,  like  the  rest,  and  had 
Bmooth  stones  laid  on  each  side  of  it  for  wheels 
to  run  in.  with  grooves,  which  seemed  to  have 
been  worn  in  them  by  the  wheels  that  had  passed 
there. 

The  reason  why  the  streets  are  so  narrow  in 


Pronounced  jenrdgcr 
3 


34  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  cathedral.  Venerable  ruins.  Curious  vegetation, 

these  old  towns  is,  that  in  the  ancient  times,  wheu 
they  were  laid  out,  there  were  no  wheeled  car- 
riages in  use,  and  the  streets  were  only  intended' 
for  foot  passengers.  When,  at  length,  carriages 
came  into  use,  the  houses  were  all  built,  and  so 
the  streets  could  not  easily  be  widened. 

Our  travellers  at  length  reached  a  large,  open 
square,  on  the  farther  side  of  which  the  immense 
mass  of  the  cathedral  was  seen  rising,  like  a  gray 
and  venerable  ruin.  The  wall  which  formed  the 
front  of  it,  and  which  terminated  above  in  the 
unfinished  mason  work  of  the  towers,  was  very 
irregular  in  its  outline  on  the  top,  having  re- 
mained just  as  it  was  left  when  the  builders 
stopped  their  work  upon  it,  five  hundred  years 
ago.  The  whole  front  of  this  wall,  having  been 
formed  apparently  of  clusters  of  Gothic  columns, 
which  had  become  darkened,  and  corroded,  and 
moss-covered  by  time,  appeared  "very  much,  as 
Hollo  had  said,  like  a  range  of  cliffs  —  the  resem- 
blance being  greatly  increased  by  the  green  fringe 
of  foliage  with  which  the  irregular  outline  of  the 
top  was  adorned.  It  may  seem  strange  that  such 
a  vegetation  as  this  could  arise  and  be  sustained 
at  such  a  vast  elevation.  But  ancient  ruins  are 
almost  always  found  to  be  thus  covered  v  ith 
plants  which  grow  upon  them,  even  at  a  very 
great  height  above  the  ground,  with  a  luxuriance 


The   Unfinished    Cathedral.     35 

The  causes  o.  its  growth  on  ruins. 

which  is  very  surprising  to  those  who  witness  this 
phenomenon  for  the  first  time.  The  process  is 
this  :  Mosses  and  lichens  begin  to  grow  first  on 
the  stones  and  in  the  mortar.  The  roots  of  thesu 
plants  strike  in,  and  assisted  by  the  sun  and  rain, 
they  gradually  disintegrate  a  porticn  of  the  ma- 
sonry, which,  in  process  of  time,  forms  a  soil 
sufficient  for  the  seeds  of  other  plants,  brought  by 
the  wind,  or  dropped  by  birds,  to  take  root  in. 
At  first  these  plants  do  not  always  come  to  matu- 
rity ;  but  when  they  die  and  decay,  they  help  to 
increase  the  soil,  and  to  make  a  better  bed  for 
the  seeds  that  are  to  come  afterwards.  Thus,  in 
the  course  of  centuries,  the  upper  surfaces  of  old 
walls  and  towers  become  quite  fertile  in  grass 
and  weeds,  and  sometimes  in  shrubbery.  I  once 
gathered  sprigs  from  quite  a  large  rosebush 
which  I  found  growing  several  hundred  feet 
above  the  ground,  on  one  of  the  towers  of  the 
cathedral  of  Strasbourg.  It  was  as  flourishing 
a  rosebush  as  I  should  wish  to  see  in  any  gentle- 
man's garden. 

"What  Rollo  meant  by  the  bears  and  wolves 
which  he  said  he  saw  looking  down  from  these 
cliff-like  towers,  were  great  stone  figures  of  these 
animals,  that  projected  from  various  angles  and 
cornices  here  and  there,  to  serve  as  waterspouts. 

There  was  an  immense  door  of  entrance  to  the 


36  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  interior  of  the  cathedral. 

church,  at  the  end  of  a  very  deep,  arched  recess 
in  the  middle  of  the  wall,  and  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  went  up  to  it  to  go  in.  They  were  met  at 
the  door  by  another  commissioner,  who  offered  his 
services  to  show  them  the  church.  Mr.  George 
declined  this  offer,  and  went  in. 

The  feeling  of  amazement  and  awe  which  the 
aspect  of  the  interior  of  the  cathedral  first  awa- 
kened in  the  minds  of  our  travellers  was  for  a 
moment  interrupted  by  a  man  in  a  quaint  cos- 
tume, who  came  up  to  them,  holding  a  large  silver 
salver  in  his  hand,  with  money  in  it.  He  said 
something  to  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  in  German. 
They  did  not  understand  what  he  said  ;  but  hia 
action  showed  that  he  was  taking  up  a  contribu- 
tion, for  something  or  other,  from  the  visitors  who 
came  to  see  the  church.  Mr.  George  paid  no 
attention  to  him,  but  walked  on. 

On  looking  above  and  around  them,  our  travel- 
lers found  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  sort  of  for- 
est of  monstrous  stone  columns,  which  towered  to  a 
vast  height  above  their  heads,  and  there  were  lost 
in  vaults  and  arches  of  the  most  stupendous  mag- 
nificence and  grandeur.  The  floor  was  of' stone, 
being  formed  of  square  flags,  all  cracked  and  cor- 
roded by  time.  Along  the  sides  of  the  church 
were  various  chapels,  all  adorned  with  great 
paintings  and  containing  altars  richly  furnished 


The    Unfinished    Cathedral.   37 

A  magnificent  scene.  The  iron  screen.  The  view  within. 

with  silver  lamps,  and  glittering  paraphernalia 
of  all  kinds.  Parties  of  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
strangers  from  all  lands,  were  walking  to  and 
fro  at  leisure  about  the  floor,  looking  at  the 
paintings,  or  gazing  up  into  the  vaulted  roofs,  or 
studying  out  the  inscriptions  on  the  monuments 
aid  sculptures  which  meet  the  eye  on  every  hand. 

All  this  was  in  the  body  of  the  church,  or  the 
nave,  as  it  is  called,  which  is  in  fact  only  the  vesti- 
bule to  the  more  imposing  magnificence  of  what 
is  beyond,  in  the  ambulatory  and  in  the  choir. 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  advanced  in  this  direction, 
and  at  length  they  came  to  a  vast  screen  made  of 
a  very  lofty  palisade  of  iron.  They  approached 
a  door  in  the  centre  of  the  screen,  and  looking 
through  between  the  iron  bars,  they  beheld  a 
scene  of  grandeur"  and  magnificence  wholly  inde- 
scribable. The  carved  oak  stalls,  the  gorgeously 
decorated  altar,  the  immense  candlesticks  with 
candles  twenty  feet  high,  and  the  lofty  ceiling 
with  its  splendid  frescoes,  formed  a  spectacle  so 
imposing  that  they  both  gazed  at  it  for  s°me  mo- 
ments in  silent  wonder. 

"  I  wish  we  could  get  in,'  said  Rollo. 

"  I  wish  so  too,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  but  ]  sup- 
pose that  this  is  a  sort  of  sacred  pla°,e." 

A  moment  after  this,  while  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  were  looking  through  this  grating  i  sudden 


6%  ROLLO     ON     THE      RHINE. 

The  music  of  the  choir.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  fiiid  a  door  open. 

Bound  of  music  burst  upon  their  ears.  It  waa 
produced  evidently  by  an  organ  and  a  choir  of 
singers,  and  it  seemed  to  come  from  far  above  their 
heads.  The  sound  was  at  once  deepened  in  vol- 
ume by  the  reverberation  of  the  vaults  and  arches 
of  the  cathedral,  and  at  the  same  time  softened  in 
tone,  so  that  the  effect  was  inconceivably  solemn. 

"  Hark  !  "  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Where  does  that  music  come  from  ? "  said 
Rollo. 

"  Hark  !  "  repeated  Mr.  George. 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  stood  still  and  lis- 
tened almost  breathlessly  to  the  n  usic,  until  it 
ceased. 

"  That  was  good  music,"  said  Rollo. 

Mr.  George  made  a  sort  of  inarticulate  excla- 
mation, which  seemed  to  imply  that  he  had  no 
words  to  express  the  emotion  which  the  music 
awakened  in  his  mind,  and  walked  slowly  away. 

Presently  they  came  to  a  place  on  one  side, 
where  there  was  a  great  iron  gate  or  door  in  the 
screen,  which  seemed  to  be  ajar. 

"  Here's  a  door  open,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  let 
us  go  in  here." 

Rollo  shrank  back,  a  little.  "  I'm  afraid  they 
will  not  let  us  go  in  here,"  said  he.  "  It  looks 
[ike  a  private  place." 

Rollo  was  always  very  particular,  in  all  hi? 


The    Unfinished    Cathedral.   39 

Caution.  Entering.  The  chapels. 

travels,  to  avoid  every  thing  like  intrusion.  He 
would  never  go  where  it  seemed  to  him  doubtful 
whether  it  was  proper  to  go.  By  this  means  he 
saved  himself  from  a  great  many  awkward  pre- 
dicaments that  persons  who  act  on  a  contrary 
principle  often  get  themselves  into  while  travel- 
ling.    Mr.  George  was  not  quite  so  particular. 

"  It  looks  rather  private,"  said  Mr.  George ; 
"  but  if  they  do  not  wish  us  to  go  in,  they  must 
keep  the  door  shut." 

So  he  pushed  the  great  iron  gate  open,  and 
walked  in.  Rollo  followed  him,  though  some- 
what timidly. 

They  passed  between  a  row  of  chapels  *  on  one 
side,  and  a  high,  carved  partition  on  the  other, 
which  seemed  to  separate  them  from  the  choir, 
until,  at  length,  they  came  to  the  end 'of  the  parti- 
tion, where  there  was  a  gate  that  led  directly  into 
the  choir.  Mr.  George  turned  in,  followed  by 
Rollo,  and  they  found  themselves  standing  in  the 
midst  of  a  scene  of  gorgeous  magnificence  which 
it  is  utterly  impossible  to  describe. 


*  These  chapels  are  recesses  or  alcoves  along  the  side  of  the 
ehurch,  fitted  up  and  furnished  with  altars,  crucifixes,  confes- 
sionals, paintings,  images,  and  other  sacred  emblems  connected 
with  the  ritual  of  the  Catholic  worship.  They  are  usually  raised 
a  step  or  two  above  the  floor  of  the  church,  and  are  separated 
from  it  by  an  ornamented  railing,  with  a  gate  in  the  middle  of  it. 


40  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Where  the  music  came  from.  Rollo  espies  a  congregation. 

"  That  is  where  the  music  came  from  that  we 
heard,"  said  Rollo,  pointing  upward. 

Mr.  George  looked  up  where  Rollo  had  pointed, 
and  there  he  saw  a  gallery  at  a  great  elevation 
above  them,  with  a  choir  of  singers  in  front,  and 
an  enormous  organ  towering  to  a  great  height 
towards  the  vaulted  roof  behind.  The  choir  was 
separated  from  the  body  of  the  church  by  ranges 
of  columns  above,  and  by  richly-carved  and  orna- 
mental screens  and  railings  below.  The  ceilings 
were  beautifully  painted  in  fresco,  and  here  and 
there  were  to  be  seen  lofty  windows  of  stained 
glass,  antique  and  venerable  in  form,  and  inde- 
scribably rich  and  gorgeous  in  coloring. 

After  gazing  about  upon  this  scene  for  a  few 
minutes  with  great  admiration  and  awe,  Rollo 
called  his  uncle's  attention  to  a  discovery  which 
he  suddenly  made. 

"See,"  said  he;  "uncle  George, _ there  is  a 
congregation." 

So  saying,  Rollo  pointed  across  the  choir  to  a 
sort  of  gateway,  which  was  opposite  to  the  side 
on  which  they  came  in,  and  where,  through  the 
spaces  which  opened  between  the  great  columns 
that  intervened,  a  congregation  were  seen  assem- 
bled. They  were  in  a  chapel  which  was  situated 
in  that  part  of  the  church.  The  chapel  itself 
was  full,  and  a  great  many  persons  were  seated 


The    Unfinished    Cathedral.   41 

The  holy  water  at  the  entrance  of  the  chapel.  The  service. 

in  the  various  spaces  rear.  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  walked  across  the  choir,  and  joined  this 
congregation  by  taking  a  position  near  a  pillar, 
where  they  could  see  what  was  going  on. 

At  a  corner  near  a  little  gateway  in  a  railing, 
where  the  people  appeared  to  come  in,  there  was 
a  woman  sitting  with  a  brush  in  her  hand.  The 
brush  was  wet  with  holy  water.  The  people,  as 
they  came  in,  —  for  a  few  came  in  after  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George  arrived  at  the  place,  —  touched  their 
fingers  to  this  brush,  to  wet  them,  and  then 
crossed  themselves  with  the  holy  water. 

At  the  altar  was  a  priest  dressed  in  splendid 
pontificals.  He  was  standing  with  his  back  to 
the  people.  There  was  a  great  number  of  im- 
mensely tall  candlesticks  on  each  side  of  him,  and 
a  great  many  other  glittering  emblems.  The 
priest  was  dressed  in  garments  richly  embroidered 
with  gold.  There  was  a  boy  behind  him  dressed 
also  in  a  very  singular  manner.  The  priest  and 
the  boy  went  through  with  a  great  variety  of 
performances  before  the  altar,  none  of  which 
Rollo  could  at  all  understand.  From  time  to 
time  the  boy  would  ring  a  little  bell,  and  the 
organ  and  the  choir  of  singers  in  the  lofty  gallery 
would  begin  to  play  and  sing  ;  and  then,  after  a 
short  time,  the  music  would  cease,  and  the  priest 
and  the  boy  would  go  on  with  their  performances 
as  before. 


42  R  0  L  L  0     OX     THE     R  H  I  X  E  . 

The  procession.  The  dress  of  the  officials.  Incense. 

Presently  Rollo  heard  a  sound  of  marching 
along  the  paved  floor,  and  looking  into  the  choir 
whence  the  sounds  proceeded,  he  saw  a  proces- 
sion formed  of  boys,  with  a  priest,  bearing  some 
glittering  sacred  utensils  of  silver  in  his  hands, 
at  the  head  of  them.  The  boys  were  all  dressed 
alike.  The  dress  consisted  of  a  long  crimson 
robe  with  a  white  frock  over  it,  which  came  down 
below  the  waist,  and  a  crimson  cape  over  the 
frock,  which  covered  the  shoulders.  Thus  they 
were  red  above  and  below,  and  white  in  the 
middle. 

One  of  these  boys  had  a  censer  in  his  hands,  and 
another  had  a  little  bell ;  and  as  they  came  along 
you  could  see  the  censer  swinging  in  the  air,  and 
the  volumes  of  fragrant  smoke  rising  from  it,  and 
you  could  hear  the  tinkling  of  the  little  bell. 
The  priest  advanced  to  the  altar  before  which  the 
audience  were  sitting,  and  there,  while  the  censer 
was  waving  and  the  smoke  was  ascending,  he  per- 
formed various  ceremonies  which  Rollo  could  not 
at  all  understand,  but  which  seemed  to  interest 
the  congregation  very  much,  for  they  bowed  con- 
tinually, and  crossed  themselves,  and  seemed  im- 
pressed with  a  very  deep  solemnity. 

Presently,  when  the  ceremony  was  completed, 
the  procession  returned  into  the  choir,  the  priest 
at  the  head  of  it,  just  as  it  came. 


The    Unfinished     Cathedral.   43 

Going  out.  Rollo's  opinion  of  the  service.  Mr.  George's. 

When  the  procession  had  passed  away,  Mr. 
George  made  a  sign  for  Rollo  to  follow  him.  and 
then  walked  along  out  through  the  gate  where 
the  woman  was  sitting  with  the  holy  water.  She 
held  out  the  brush  to  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  as 
they  passed,  but  they  did  not  take  it. 

"  What  ridiculous  mummeries  !  "  said  Rollo,  in 
a  low  tone,  as  soon  as  they  had  got  out  of  the 
hearing  of  the  congregation. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  they  seem  so  to  us  ; 
but  I  have  a  certain  respect  for  all  those  ceremo- 
nies, since  they  are  meant  to  be  the  worship  of 
God." 

"  I  thought  it  was  the  worship  of  images,"  said 
Rollo.     "  Did  not  you  see  the  images  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  saw  them  ;  and 
perhaps  we  can  make  it  out  that  those  rites  are, 
in  reality,  the  worship  of  images ;  but  they  are  not 
meant  for  that.  They  are  meant  for  Jhe  worship 
of  God." 


44  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE 


The  ambulatory  in  a  European  cathedral. 


Chapter    III. 
The    Galleries. 

"  I  want  to  get  up  upon  the  towers,"  said 
Rollo,  "  if  we  can." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  but  I  want  first  to 
go  and  see  the  tomb  of  the  three  kings." 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  I  will  show  you,"  said  Mr.  George.  So  say- 
ing, Mr.  George  led  the  way,  and  Rollo  followed, 
along  what  is  called  the  ambulatory,  which  is  a 
broad  space  that  extends  all  around  the  head  of 
the  cross  in  the  cathedral  churches  of  Europe, 
between  the  screen  of  the  choir  on  -one  side  and 
the  ranges  of  chapels  on  the  other.  The  ambu- 
latory is  usually  very  grand  and  imposing  in  the 
effect  which  it  produces  on  the  mind  of  the 
visitor,  on  account  of  the  immense  columns  which 
border  it,  the  loftiness  of  the  vaulted  roof,  which 
forms  a  sort  of  sky  over  it  above,  and  by  the 
elaborate  carvings  and  sculptures  of  the  screen 
on  one  side,  and  the  gorgeous  decorations  of  the 
chapels  on  the  other.     Then  all  along  the  floor 


The    Galleries.  45 

Incongruous  emblems.  The  tomb  of  the  three  kings. 

there  are  sculptured  monuments  of  ancient  war- 
riors armed  to  the  teeth  in  marble  representations 
of  iron  and  steel,  while  the  walls  are  adorned 
with  rich  paintings  of  immense  magnitude,  rep- 
resenting scenes  in  the  life  of  the  Savior.  There 
seemed  to  Mr.  George  some  incongruity  between 
the  reverence  evinced  for  the  teachings  and  ex- 
ample of  Jesus,  in  the  pictures  above,  and  the 
honor  paid  to  the  barbarous  valor  of  the  fighting 
old  barons,  in  the  monuments  and  effigies  which 
occupied  the  pavement  below. 

At  length,  at  the  head  of  the  cross,  exactly  op- 
posite to  the  centre  of  the  high  altar,  which  faced 
the  choir,  in  the  place  which  seemed  to  be  the 
special  place  of  honor,  Mr.  George  pointed  to  a 
small,  square  enclosure,  or  sort  of  projecting  closet, 
which  was  richly  carved  and  gilded,  and  adorned 
yrith  a  variety  of  ancient  inscriptions. 

"  There,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  that  must  be  the 
tomb  of  the  three  kings.  That  is  the  sepulchre 
which  contains,  as  they  pretend,  the  skulls  of  the 
three  wise  men  of  the  east,  who  came  to  Bethle- 
hem to  worship  Jesus  the  night  on  which  he  waa 
born." 

"  How  came  they  here  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  They  were  at  Milan  about  six  or  eight  hun- 
dred years  ago,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  they 
were  plundered  from  the  church  there  by  a  great 


46  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  IT  I  N  E  . 

The  tomb  of  the  three  kings. 

general,  and  given  to  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne, 
and  he  put  them  in  this  church.  They  have  been 
here  ever  since,  and  they  are  prized  very  highly 
indeed.  They  are  set  round  with  gold  and 
precious  stones,  and  have  the  names  of  the  men 
marked  on  them  in  letters  formed  of  rubies." 

"  Can  we  see  them  ?  "  asked .  Rollo.  As  lie 
said  this  he  climbed  up  upon  a  little  step,  and  at- 
tempted to  look  through  a  gilded  grating  in  the 
front  of  the  coffer  which  contained  the  rubies. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  but  we  must  pay  the 
sacristan  for  showing  them  to  us.  We  can  ask 
him  about  them  when  we  come  down  from  the 
galleries." 

"And  besides,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  the 
guide  book  says  that  under  the  floor  of  the  church, 
just  in  front  of  the  tomb  of  the  three  kings,  the 
heart  of  Mary  de  Medicis  is  buried.  That  must 
be  the  place." 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  pointed  to  a  large, 
square  flagstone,  which  looked  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  the  others  around  it.  Rollo  gazed  a 
moment  at  the  stone,  and  then  said, — 

"  I  suppose  so  ;  but  I  don't  care  much  abou  t 
these  things,  uncle  George.  Let  us  go  up  into 
the  towers." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  will  go 
and  see  if  we  can  find  the  way." 


The    Galleries.  47 

The  peasants  at  their  prayers. 

So  our  travellers  went  on  along  the  ambulatory, 
and  thence  into  the  aisles  and  nave  of  the  church, 
stopping,  however,  every  few  minutes  to  gaze  at 
some  gorgeously  decorated  altar,  or  large  and 
beautiful  painting,  or  quaint  old  effigy,  or  at 
some  monument,  or  inscription,  or  antique  and 
time-worn  sculpture.  There  were  a  great  many 
other  parties  of  visitors,  consisting  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  and  sometimes  children,  rambling 
about  the  church  at  the  same  time.  Rollo  ob- 
served, as  he  passed  these  groups,  that  some  were 
talking  French,  some  German,  and  some  English. 
Here  and  there,  too,  Rollo  passed  plain-looking 
people,  dressed  like  peasants,  who  were  kneeling 
before  some  altar  or  crucifix,  saying  their  prayers 
or  counting  their  beads,  and  wearing  a  very  de- 
vout and  solemn  air.  Some  of  these  persons  took 
no  notice  of  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  as  they  passed 
them  ;  but  others  would  follow  them  with  their 
eyes,  scrutinizing  their  dress  and  appearance  very 
closely  until  they  got  by,  though  they  continued 
all  the  time  to  move  their  lips  and  utter  inarticu- 
late murmurings. 

"  I  don't  think  those  girls  are  attending  much 
to  their  prayers,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I'm  afraid  the  girls  in  the  Protestant  churches 
in  America  do  not  attend  to  them  much  better," 
said  Mr.  George.     "There  is  a  great  deal  of 


ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE, 


Rollo  makes  an  acquaintance. 


time  spent  in  seeing  how  people  are  dressed  by 
worshippers  in  other  churches  than  the  Roman 
Catholic." 

At  length  Rollo  caught  a  view  of  the  man 
vrho  had  held  the  plate  for  a  contribution,  at  the 
time  when  he  and  Mr.  George  came  in  at  the 
church  door.  He  was  walking  to  and  fro,  with 
his  plate  in  his  hand,  in  a  distant  portion  of  the 
church.  Rollo  immediately  offered  to  go  to  him. 
and  ask  how  lie  and  Mr.  George  were  to  get  to 
the  towers.  So  he  left  Mr.  George  looking  at  a 
great  painting,  and  walked  off  in  that  direction. 

Just  before  Rollo  came  to  the  man,  his  atten- 
tion was  attracted  by  a  girl  of  about  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  of  age,  who  was  strolling  about 
the  church  at  a  little  distance  before  him,  swing- 
ing her  bonnet  in  her  hand.  She  was  very  pretty, 
and  her  dark  eyes  shone  with  a  very  brilliant, 
but  somewhat  roguish  expression.-  She  stopped 
when  she  saw  Rollo  coming,  and  eyed  him  with  a 
mingled  look  of  curiosity  and  pleasure. 

Rollo,  observing  that  this  young  lady  appeared 
not  to  be  particularly  afraid  of  him,  thought  he 
would  accost  her. 

"  Do  you  speak  French  ?  "  said  he  in  French, 
as  he  was  walking  slowly  by  her.  He  supposed 
from  her  appearance  that  she  was  a  French  girl 
and  so  he  spoke  to  her  in  that  language. 


The    Galleries.  49 

A  self-introduction.  Minnie  taking  a  contribution. 

The  girl  replied,  not  in  French,  but  in  Eng- 
lish, — 

u  Yes,  and  English  too." 

"  How  did  you  know  that  I  spoke  English  ?  " 
said  Rollo,  speaking  now  in  English  himself. 

"  By  your  looks,"  said  the  girl. 

"  What  is  your  name  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Tell  me  your  name  first,"  said  the  girl. 

"  My  name  is  Rollo,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And  mine,"  replied  the  stranger,  "  is  Minnie." 

"  Do  you  sec  that  man  out  there,"  said  Minnie, 
immediately  after  telling  her  name,  "  who  is  gath- 
ering the  donations  ?  Come  and  see  what  a  play 
I  will  play  him." 

Minnie  was  a  French  girl,  and  so,  though  she 
had  learned  English,  she  did  not  speak  it  quite 
according  to  the  established  usage. 

So  she  walked  along  towards  the  contribution 
man,  wearing  a  very  grave  and  demure  expres- 
sion of  countenance  as  she  went.  Rollo  kept  by 
her  side.  As  soon  as  they  came  near,  the  man 
held  out  his  plate,  hoping  to  receive  a  contribu- 
tion from  them.  But  as  the  plate  already  con- 
tained money  which  had  been  put  in  by  former 
contributors,  the  action  was  precisely  as  if  the 
man  were  offering  money  to  the  children,  instead 
of  asking  it  of  them.  So  Minnie  put  forth  her 
hand,  and  making  a  courtesy,  took  one  of  the 
4 


DO  ROLLO      ON     THE     RHINE 


How  to  get  into  the  towers. 


pieces  of  money  that  were  in  the  plate,  pretend- 
ing to  suppose  that  the  man  meant  to  give  it  to 
her,  and  said  at  the  same  time,  in  French,  — 

"  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you,  sir.  It  is 
just  what  I  wanted." 

The  man  immediately  exclaimed,  "  Nein 
nein  !  "  which  is  the  German  for  No  !  no  !  and 
then  went  on  saying  something  in  a  very  ear- 
nest tone,  and  holding  out  his  hand  for  Minnie 
to  give  him  back  the  money.  Minnie  did  so,  and 
then,  looking  up  at  Rollo  with  a  very  arch  and 
roguish  expression  of  countenance,  she  turned 
round  and  skipped  away  over  the  stone  pave- 
ment, until  she  was  lost  from  view  behind  an 
enormous  column.  Rollo  saw  her  afterwards 
walking  about  with  a  gentleman  and  lady,  the 
party  to  which  she  belonged. 

Rollo  then  asked  the  man  who  held  the  plate 
what  he  should  do  to  get  up  into  the  towers. 
He  asked  this  question  in  French,  and  the  mnD 
replied  in  French  that  he  must  go  "  to  the  Swiss/ 
and  the  Swiss  would  give  him  a  ticket. 

"  Where  shall  I  find  the  Swiss  ?  "  asked  Rollo 

The  man  pointed  to  a  distant  part  of  the 
church,  where  a  number  of  people  were  going  in 
through  a  great  iron  gateway. 

"  You  will  find  him  there  somewhere,"  said  the 
man,  "  and  you  will  know  him  by  his  red  dress." 


The    Galleries. 


51 


Rollo  reports  to  his  uncle. 


Minnie's  roguery. 


So   Rollo   went    and    reported   to   his    uncle 
George,  and  they  together  went  in  pursuit  of  the 


52  ROLLO     ON      THE      RHINE. 

The  Swiss.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  go  into  the  galleries. 

Swiss.  They  soon  came  to  the  great  gate ;  and 
iust  inside  of  it  they  saw  a  man  dressed  in  a  long 
red  gown  which  came  down  to  his  ankles.  This 
proved  to  be  what  they  called  the  Swiss.  Od 
making  known  to  him  what  they  wanted,  this  man 
gave  them  a  ticket,  —  they  paying  him  the  usual 
fee  for  it,  —  and  then  went  and  found  a  guide 
who  was  to  show  them  up  into  the  galleries. 

The  guide,  taking  them  under  his  charge,  led 
them  outside  the  church,  and  then  conducted 
them  to  a  door  leading  into  a  small  round  tower, 
which  was  built  at  an  angle  of  the  wall.  This 
tower,  though  small  in  size,  was  as  high  as  the 
church,  and  it  contained  a  spiral  staircase  of 
stone,  which  conducted  up  into  the  upper  parts 
of  the  edifice.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo,  however, 
found  that  they  could  not  go  up  to  the  towers 
but  only  to  what  were  called  the  galleries.  But 
it  proved  in  the  end  that  they  had  quite  enough  of 
climbing  and  of  walking  along  upon  dizzy  heights, 
in  visiting  these  galleries,  and  Rollo  was  very 
willing  to  come  clown  again  when  he  had  walked 
round  the  upper  one  of  them,  without  ascending 
to  the  towers. 

There  were  three  of  these  galleries.  The  first 
was  an  inner  one  ;  that  is,  it  was  inside  the 
church.  The  two  others  were  outside.  The 
party  was  obliged  to  ascend  to  a  vast  height  be- 


The    Galleries.  53 


The  inner  gallery. 


fore  they  reached  the  first  gallery.  This  gallery 
was  a  very  narrow  passage,  barely  wide  enough 
for  one  person  to  walk  in,  which  extended  all 
around  the  choir,  with  a  solid  wall  on  one  side, 
and  arches  through  which  they  could  look  down 
into  the  church  below  on  the  other.  After  walk- 
ing along  for  several  hundred  feet,  listening  to 
the  swelling  sounds  of  the  music,  which,  coming 
from  the  organ  and  choir  below,  echoed  grandly 
and  solemnly  among  the  vaults  and  arches  above 
them,  until  they  reached  the  centre  of  the  curve 
at  the  head  of  the  cross,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
stopped,  and  leaned  over  the  stone  parapet,  and 
looked  down.  The  parapet  was  very  high  and 
very  thick,  and  Rollo  had  to  climb  up  a  little 
upon  it  before  he  could  see  over. 

They  gazed  for  a  few  minutes  in  silence,  com- 
pletely overwhelmed  with  the  dizzy  grandeur  of 
the  view.  It  is  always  impossible  to  convey  by 
words  any  idea  of  the  impression  produced  upon 
the  mind  by  looking  down  from  any  great  height 
upon  scenes  of  magnificence  or  of  beauty  ;  but  it 
would  be  doubly  impossible  in  such  a  case  as  this. 
Far  below  them  in  front,  they  could  see  the  choir 
of  singers  in  the  singing  gallery,  with  the  organ 
behind  them.  The  distance  was,  however,  so 
great  that  they  could  not  distinguish  the  faces  of 
the  singers,  or  even  their  persons.     Then   at   a 


54  ROLLO     ON     THE     RfllNE. 

An  imposing  spectacle. 

vast  distance,  lower  still,  was  the  floor  of  the 
choir,  paved  beautifully  in  mosaic,  and  with  little 
dots  of  men  and  women,  slowly  creeping,  like 
insects,  over  the  surface  of  it.  At  a  distance, 
through  the  spaces  between  the  columns,  a  part 
of  the  congregation  could  be  seen,  with  the 
women  and  children  at  the  margin  of  it,  kneel- 
ing on  the  praying  chairs,  and  a  little  red  spot 
near  a  gate,  which  Rollo  thought  must  be  the 
Swiss.  The  whole  of  the  interior  of  the  choir, 
which  they  looked  down  into  as  you  would  look 
down  into  a  valley  from  the  summit  of  a  moun- 
tain, was  so  magnificently  decorated  with  paint- 
ings, mosaics,  and  frescoes,  and  enriched  with 
columns,  monuments,  sculptures,  and  carvings, 
and  there  were,  moreover,  so  many  railings,  and 
screens,  and  stalls,  and  canopies,  and  altars,  to 
serve  as  furnishing  for  the  vast  interior,  that  the 
whole  view  presented  the  appearance  of  a  scene 
of  enchantment. 

Mr.  George  said  it  was  the  most  imposing 
spectacle  that  he  ever  saw. 

After  this,  the  guide  led  our  two  travellers  up 
about  a  hundred  feet  higher  still,  till  they  came 
to  the  first  outer  gallery  ;  and  the  scene  which  pre- 
sented itself  to  view  here  would  be  still  more  diffi- 
cult to  describe  than  the  other.  The  gallery  was 
very   narrow,  like   the   one  within,  and  it  led 


The'   Galleries..  55 

Tho  outer  galleries.  Strange  architecture. 

through  a  perfect  maze  of  columns,  pinnacles, 
arches,  turrets,  flying  buttresses,  and  other  con- 
structions pertaining  to  the  exterior  architecture 
of  the  church.  It  was  like  walking  on  a  moun- 
tain in  the  midst  of  a  forest  of  stone.  The 
analogy  was  increased  by  the  monstrous  forms 
of  bears,  lions,  tigers,  boars,  and  other  wild  and 
ferocious  beasts,  which  projected  from  the  eaves 
every  where  to  convey  the  water  that  came  down 
from  rains,  out  to  a  distance  from  the  walls  of  the 
building.  These  images  had  deep  grooves  cut 
along  their  backs  for  the  water  to  flow  in. 
These  grooves  led  to  the  mouths  of  the  animals, 
and  they  were  invisible  to  persons  looking  up 
from  below,  so  that  to  observers  on  the  ground 
each  animal  appeared  perfect  in  his  form,  and 
was  seen  stretching  out  the  whole  length  of  his 
body  from  the  cornices  of  the  building,  and  pour- 
ing out  the  water  from  his  mouth. 

From  these  outer  galleries  Rollo  could  not 
only  see  the  pinnacles,  and  turrets,  and  flying 
buttresses,  of  the  part  of  the  church  which  was 
finished,  but  he  could  also  observe  the  immense 
works  of  scaffolding  and  machinery  erected 
around  the  part  which  was  now  in  progress. 
Men  were  at  work  hoisting  up  immense  stones, 
and  moving  them  along  by  a  railway  to  the  places 
on  the  walls  where   they  were  destined  to  go. 


56  ROLLO      ON     THE      RHINE. 

The  men  at  work.  The  scaffoldings. 

The  yard,  too,  on  one  side,  far,  far  down,  was  cov- 
ered with  blocks,  some  rough,  and  others  already 
carved  and  sculptured,  and  ready  to  go  up.  The 
towers  were  in  view  too,  with  the  monstrous 
crane  leaning  over  from  the  summit  of  one  of 
them  ;  but  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  of  getting 
to  them  but  by  crossing  long  scaffoldings  where 
the  masons  were  now  at  work.  This  Rollo 
would  have  had  no  wish  to  do,  even  if  the  guide 
had  proposed  to  conduct  him. 

So,  after  spending  half  an  hour  in  surveying 
the  magnificent  prospect  which  opened  every 
where  around  them  over  the  surrounding  coun- 
try, and  in  scrutinizing  the  details  of  the  archi- 
tecture near,  the  sculptures,  the  masonry,  the 
painted  windows,  the  massive  piers,  and  the  but- 
tresses hanging  by  magic,  as  it  were,  in  the  air, 
and  all  the  other  wonders  of  the  maze  of  archi- 
tectural constructions  which  surrounded  them,  the 
party  began  their  descent. 

"  I  am  glad  they  are  going  to  finish  it,"  said 
Rollo  to  Mr.  George,  as  they  were  walking  round 
and  round,  and  round  and  round,  in  the  little 
turret,  going  down  the  stairs.  "  The  next  time 
We  come  here,  perhaps,  it  will  be  done." 

"  They  expect  it  will  take  twenty  years  to 
finish  it,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Twenty  years  !  "  repeated  Rollo,  surprised. 


The    Galleries.  57 

The  expense  of  finishing  the  cathedral. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  about  four  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  Why,  when  they  first  determined 
that  they  would  attempt  to  finish  it,  it  took  fifteen 
years  to  make  the  repairs  which  were  necessary 
in  the  old  work,  before  they  could  begin  any  of 
the  new.  And  now,  at  the  rate  that  they  are  going 
on,  it  will  take  twenty  years  to  finish  it.  For 
my  part,  I  do  not  know  whether  we  ought  to  be 
glad  to  have  it  finished  or  not,  on  account  of  the 
immense  cost.  It  seems  as  if  that  money  could 
be  better  expended." 

"  Perhaps  it  could,"  said  Rollo.  "  But  every 
body  that  comes  here  to  see  it  gets  a  great  deal 
of  pleasure  ;  and  as  an  immense  number  of  people 
will  come,  I  think  the  amount  of  the  pleasure 
will  be  very  great  in  all." 

"  That  is  true,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  and  that  is 
the  right  way  to  consider  it ;  but  let  us  make  the 
calculation  in  the  same  way  that  we  made  the 
calculation  about  the  gold  chain  that  you  were 
going  to  buy  in  London.  If  we  suppose  that 
the  church  was  half  done  when  they  left  off  the 
work,  and  that  it  will  now  cost  four  millions  of 
dollars  to  finish  it,  that  will  make  eight  millions 
of  dollars  in  all.  Now,  what  is  the  interest 
of  eight  millions  of  dollars,  say  at  three  per 
cent.  ?  " 

Hollo  began  to  calculate  it  in  his  mir  i ;  bul 


58  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Mr.  George's  calculations. 

before  lie  had  got  through,  Mr.  George  sa.id 
that  it  was  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
dollars  a  year. 

"  That,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  is  equal,  with  a 
proper  allowance  for  repairs,  to,  say  a  thousand 
dollars  per  day.  Now,  do  you  think  that  the 
people  who  will  come  here  to  see  it  will  get. 
pleasure  enough  from  it  to  amount  in  all  to  a 
thousand  dollars  a  day  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo,  doubtfully.  "  I'd 
give  one  dollar,  I  know,  to  see  it." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  so  would  I ;  and  I 
do  not  know  but  that  there  would  be  three 
hundred  thousand  to  come  in  a  year,  including 
all  the  great  occasions  that  would  bring  out  im- 
mense assemblages  from  all  the  surrounding 
country." 

"  At  anv  rate,  I  hope  they  will  finish  it,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  So  do  I,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  And  I  mean  to  put  a  little  in  the  man's  plate 
when  I  go  down,"  said  Rollo,  "  and  then  I  shall 
have  a  share  in  it." 

"  I  will  too,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Accordingly,  as  they  passed  by  the  man  when 
they  were  leaving  the  church,  Mr.  George  put 
a  franc  into  his  plate,  and  Rollo  half  a  franc, 
Just  at  the  time  that  they  put  their  money  in 


The    Gallebies 


59 


One  of  the  four  millions  of  dollars  raised. 

the  party  that  Minnie  belonged  to  came  by,  and 
the  gentleman  put  in  a  silver  coin  called  a  thaler, 
which  is  worth  about  seventy-five  cents  ;  so  that 
Rollo  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  one 
of  the  four  millions  of  dollars  was  raised  or 
the  spot. 


60  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 


Travelling  accommodations  on  the  Rhine. 


Chapter    IV. 

Travelling    on    the    Rhine. 

The  steamboats  and  hotels,  and  all  the  arrange- 
ments made  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers 
on  the  Rhine,  are  entirely  different  from  those  of 
any  American  river,  partly  for  the  reason  that  so 
very  large  a  portion  of  the  travelling  there  is 
pleasure  travelling.  The  boats  are  smaller,  and 
they  go  more  frequently.  The  company  is  more 
select.  They  sit  upon  the  deck,  under  the  awn- 
ings, all  the  day,  looking  at  their  guide  books, 
and  maps,  and  panoramas  of  the  river,  and  study- 
ing out  the  names  and  history  of  the  villages, 
and  castles,  and  ruined  towers,  which  they  pass 
on  the  way.  The  hotels  are  large  and  very  ele- 
gant. They  are  built  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
or  wherever  there  is  the  finest  view,  and  the 
dining  room  is  always  placed  in  the  best  part  of 
the  house,  the  windows  from  it  commanding 
views  of  the  mountains,  or  overlooking  the  water, 
so  that  in  sitting  at  table  to  eat  your  breakfast, 
or  your  dinner,  you  have  before  you  all  the  time 


Travelling    on    the    Rhine.    61 

The  gardens.  German  villages.  The  village  church. 

some  charming  view.  Then  there  is  usually  con- 
nected with  the  dining  room,  and  opening  from 
it,  gome  garden  or  terrace,  raised  above  the  road 
and  the  river,  with  seats  and  little  tables  there, 
shaded  by  trees,  or  sheltered  by  bowers,  where 
ladies  and  gentlemen  can  sit,  when  the  weather 
is  pleasant,  and  read,  or  drink  their  tea  or  coffee, 
or  explore,  with  an  opera  glass,  or  a  spy  glass. 
the  scenery  around.  They  can  see  the  towers  and 
castles  across  the  river,  and  follow  the  little  paths- 
leading  in  zigzag  lines  up  among  the  vineyards 
to  the  watchtowers,  and  pavilions,  and  belvi- 
deres,  that  are  built  on  the  pinnacles  of  the  rocks, 
or  on  the  summits  of  the  lower  mountains. 

The  hotels  and  inns,  even  in  the  smallest  vil- 
lages, are  very  nice  and  elegant  in  all  their 
interior  arrangements.  These  small  villages 
consist  usually  of  a  crowded  collection  of  the 
most  quaint  and  queer-looking  houses,  or  rather 
huts,  of  stone,  with  an  antique  and  venera- 
ble-looking church  in  the  midst  of  them,  looking 
still  more  quaint  and  queer  than  the  houses. 
The  hotels,  however,  in  these  villages,  or  rather 
on  the  borders  of  them,  —  for  the  hotels  are  often 
built  on  the  open  ground  beyond  the  town,  where 
there  is  room  for  gardens  and  walks,  and  raised 
terraces  aroun  I  them,  —  are  palaces  in  comparison 
with  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabitants.     And  well 


62  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Character  of  the  villagers.  Tow  paths.  A  team. 

they  may  be,  for  the  villagers  are  almost  all 
laborers  of  a  very  humble  class  —  boatmen,  who 
get  their  living  by  plying  boats  up  and  down  the 
river  ;  vinedressers,  who  cultivate  the  vineyards 
of  the  neighboring  hills  ;  or  hostlers  and  coach- 
men, who  take  care  of  the  carriages  and  of  the 
horses  employed  in  the  traffic  of  the  river.  A 
great  number  of  horses  are  employed  ;  for  not 
only  are  the  carriages  of  such  persons  as  choose 
to  travel  on  the  Rhine  by  land,  or  to  make  excur- 
sions on  the  banks  of  the  river,  drawn  by  them, 
but  almost  all  the  boats,  except  the  steamboats 
that  go  up  the  river,  are  towed  up  by  these  ani- 
mals. To  enable  them  to  do  this,  a  regular  tow 
path  has  been  formed  all  the  waj  up  the  river,  on 
the  left  bank,  and  boats  of  all  shapes  and  sizes 
are  continually  to  be  seen  goiug  up,  drawn,  like 
canal  boats  in  America,  by  horses  —  and  some- 
times even  by  men.  Once  I  saw  some  boys 
drawing  up  a  small  boat  in  this  way.  It  seems 
they  had  been  going  down  the  stream  to  take  a 
sail,  or  perhaps  to  convey  a  traveller  down ;  and 
now  they  were  coming  up  again,  drawing  their 
boat  by  walking  along  the  bank,  the  current  be- 
ing so  rapid  that  it  is  much  easier  to  draw  a  boat 
up  than  it  is  to  row  it.  The  boys  had  a  long 
line  attached  to  the  mast  of  their  boat,  and  both 
of  them  were  drawing  upon  this  line  by  means 


Travelling    on    the    Rhine.    65 

Interior  arrangements  of  the  hotels. 

of  broad  bands,  forming  a  sort  of  harness,  which 
were  passed  over  their  shoulders. 

Now,  the  small  villages  that  I  was  speaking  of 
are  formed  almost  exclusively  of  the  dwellings 
of  the  various  classes  which  I  have  described, 
while  the  hotels  or  inns  that  are  built  on  the 
margins  of  them  are  intended,  not  as  they  would 
be  in  America,  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
people  of  the  same  class,  but  for  travellers  of 
wealth,  and  rank,  and  distinction,  who  come  from 
all  quarters  of  the  world  to  explore  the  beauties 
and  study  the  antiquities  of  the  Rhine.  Thus  the 
inns,  however  small  and  secluded  they  may  be, 
and  however  retired  and  solitary  the  places  in 
which  they  stand,  are  always  very  nice,  and  even 
elegant,  in  their  interior  arrangements.  The 
chambers  are  furnished  and  arranged  in  the 
prettiest  possible  manner.  Handsome  open  car- 
riages and  pretty  boats  are  ready  to  convey 
visitors  on  any  excursion  which  they  may  desire 
to  make  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  table  is 
provided  with  almost  as  many  delicacies  and  nice- 
ties as  you  can  have  in  Paris. 

The  roads  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  too, 
are  absolutely  perfect.  Well  they  may  be  so 
in  fact,  for  workmen  have  been  constantly  em- 
ployed in  making  and  perfecting  them  for  nearly 
two  thousand  years.  Julius  Ca3sar  worked  upon 
5 


66  Hollo    on    the    Rhine. 

The  roads.  Who  made  them.  German  scenery. 

them.  Charlemagne  worked  upon  them.  Fred- 
eric the  Great  worked  upon  them.  Napoleon 
worked  upon  them.  They  are  walled  up  wher- 
ever necessary  on  the  side  towards  the  river  ;  the 
rock  is  cut  away  on  the  side  towards  the  land  ; 
valleys  have  been  filled  up  ;  hill  sides  have  been 
terraced,  and  ravine&  bridged  over  ;  until  the 
road,  though  passing  along  the  margin  of  a  very 
mountainous  region,  is  almost  as  level  as  a  rail- 
way throughout  the  whole  of  its  course.  And  as 
it  is  macadamized  throughout,  and  is  kept  in  the 
most  perfect  condition,  it  is  always,  in  wet  weather 
as  well  as  dry,  as  firm,  and  hard,  and  smooth  as  a 
floor. 

With  such  roads  and  such  carriages  on  the 
land,  and  such  pretty  steamboats  as  they  have 
upon  the  water,  it  would  be  very  pleasant  going 
up  through  the  highlands  of  the  Rhine,  if  there 
were  nothing  but  the  natural  scenery  to  attract 
the  eye  of  the  traveller.  But  besides  the  quaint 
and  ancient  villages,  and  the  curious  old  churches 
which  adorn  them,  —  villages  which  sometimes 
line  the  margin  of  the  water,  and  sometimes  cling 
to  the  slopes  of  the  hills,  or  nestle  in  the  higher 
valleys,  —  there  are  other  still  stronger  attrac- 
tions, in  the  castles,  towers,  and  palaces,  which  are 
seen  scattered  every  where  on  the  river  banks, 
Rdorning  every  prominent  and  commanding  posi' 


Travelling    on    the    Rhine.     61 

Ruins  of  the  old  castles.  Their  builders. 

tion  along  the  shores,  and  crowning,  in  many  cases, 
the  summits  of  the  hills.  Many  of  these  castles 
and  towers,  though  built  originally  hundreds  of 
years  ago,  are  still  kept  in  repair  and  inhabited, 
some  being  used  as  the  summer  residences  of 
princes,  or  of  private  men  of  fortune,  and  others, 
being  armed  with  cannon  and  garrisoned  with 
soldiers,  are  held  as  strongholds  by  the  kings,  or 
dukes,  or  electors,  in  whose  dominions  they  lie. 
There  are  a  great  many  of  them,  however,  that 
have  been  allowed  to  go  to  decay  ;  and  the  ruins 
of  these  still  stand,  presenting  to  the  eye  of  the 
traveller  who  gazes  up  to  them  from  the  deck  of 
the  steamer,  or  from  his  seat  in  his  carriage,  or 
who  climbs  up  to  visit  them  more  closely,  by 
means  of  the  zigzag  paths  which  lead  to  them,  very 
interesting  relics  and  memorials  ef  ancient  times. 
The  ruins  are  generally  on  very  lofty  summits. 
and  they  usually  occupy  the  most  commanding 
positions,  so  that  the  view  from  them  up  and 
down  the  river  is  almost  always  very  grand. 
The  castles  were  built  by  the  dukes,  and  barons, 
and  other  feudal  chieftains  of  the  middle  ages, 
and  they  are  placed  in  these  commanding  posi- 
tions in  order  that  the  chieftains  who  lived  in 
them  might  watch  the  river,  and  the  roads  lead- 
ing along  the  banks  of  it,  and  come  down  with  a 
troop  of  their  followers  to  exact  what  they  called 


68  EOLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  feudal  chieftains.  Systematic  robbeiy. 

tribute,  but  what  those  who  had  to  pay  it  called 
plunder,  from  the  merchants  or  travellers  whom 
they  saw  from  the  windows  of  their  watchtowera 
passing  up  and  down. 

In  fact  these  men  were  really  robbers  ;  being 
just  like  any  other  robbers,  excepting  that  they 
restricted  themselves  to  some  rule  and  system  in 
their  plunderings,  such  as  an  enlightened  regard 
for  their  own  interest  required.  If,  when  they 
found  a  vessel  laden  with  merchandise,  or  a  com- 
pany of  travellers  coming  down  the  river,  they 
had  robbed  them  of  every  thing  they  possessed, 
the  river  and  the  roads  would  soon  have  been 
entirely  abandoned,  and  their  occupation  would 
have  been  gone.  In  order  to  avoid  this  result, 
they  were  accustomed  tc  content  themselves  with 
a  certain  portion  of  the  value  which  the  traveller 
was  carrying  ,  and  they  called  the  money  which 
they  exacted  a  tribute,  or  tax,  paid  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  passing  through  their  dominions.  They 
kept  continual  watch  in  their  lofty  castles,  both 
up  and  down  the  river,  to  see  who  came  by,  and 
then,  descending  with  a  sufficient  force  to  render 
resistance  useless,  they  would  take  what  they 
pretended  to  consider  their  due,  and  retreat  with 
it  to  their  almost  inaccessible  fastnesses,  where 
they  were  safe  from  all  pursuers. 

They  often  had  wars  with  one  another ;  and  in 


Travelling    on    the    Rhine.    6S 

Wars  among  the  feudal  chieftains.    Gradual  organization  of  government. 

the  progress  of  these  wars  the  weaker  chieftains 
became,  in  the  course  of  time,  subjected  to  the 
stronger,  and  thus  two  or  more  small  dominions 
would  often  become  united  into  one.  These 
amalgamations  went  on  continually  ;  and  as  they 
advanced,  the  condition  of  the  cultivator  of  the 
ground,  and  of  the  peaceful  merchant  or  traveller, 
was  improved,  for  the  rules  and  regulations  for 
the  collection  of  the  tribute  became  more  fixed 
and  settled,  and  men  knew  more  and  more  what 
they  could  calculate  upon,  and  could  regulate  their 
business  accordingly.  Arrangements  were  made, 
too,  to  collect  a  regular  tax  from  the  cultivators  of 
the  ground  ;  and  just  so  far  as  these  arrangements 
were  matured,  and  the  produce  of  the  plunder 
or  the  tribute,  or  the  tax,  or  whatever  we  call  it, 
increased,  just  so  far  it  became  for  the  interest 
of  the  chieftains  that  the  cultivation  of  the  land 
and  the  traffic  on  the  river  should  be  increased, 
and  should  be  protected  from  all  depredations 
but  their  own.  Thus  a  system  of  law  grew  up, 
and  arrangements  for  preserving  public  order,  for 
promoting  the  general  industry,  and  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  collection  of  the  tribute,  until 
at  length,  when  all  these  arrangements  were  ma- 
tured, and  the  multitude  of  petty  chieftains  be- 
came combined  under  one  great  chieftain  ruling 
over  the  whole,  and  collecting  the  revenue  for  his 


70  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Depredation  by  taxes  and  tolls.  Vested  rights. 

subordinates,  we  find  a  great  kingdom  as  the 
result,  in  which  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
marauders  that  lived  in  castles  on  the  hills,  under 
the  name  of  princes  and  nobles,  collect  the  means 
of  enabling  themselves  to  live  in  idleness  and 
luxury  out  of  the  avails  of  the  labor  of  the  agri- 
culturists, the  merchants,  and  the  manufacturers, 
by  a  combined  and  concerted  arrangement,  and  a 
regular  system  of  rents,  taxes,  and  tolls,  instead 
of  by  irregular  forrays  and  depredations,  as  in 
former  years. 

When  any  one  of  these  nobles  is  questioned  as 
to  the  nature  of  his  claim  to  the  enjoyment  of  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  produce  of  the  land,  with- 
out doing  any  thing  to  earn  or  deserve  it,  he  says 
that  it  is  a  vested  right ;  that  is,  that  he  has  a 
right  to  claim  and  take  a  certain  portion  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  toil  of  the  present  generation  of 
laborers,  because  his  forefathers  claimed  and 
took  a  similar  portion  from  theirs.  And  the  one 
monarch,  whose  ancestors  succeeded  in  overpow- 
ering or  crowding  out  the  others,  claims  his  right 
to. rule  on  the  same  ground.  Thus,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  ages,  by  a  strange  commutation,  robbery 
and  plunder,  when  systematized,  and  extended, 
and  established  on  a  permanent  basis,  become 
legitimacy,  and  the  divine  right  of  kings. 

In  America  there  is  no  such   division  of  the 


Travelling    on    the    Rhine.    71 

The  cause  of  emigration.  The  old  castles  abamJuiiea. 

fruits  of  industry  between  those  who  do  the  work 
and  a  class  of  idle  nobles,  and  soldiers,  and  priests. 
who  do  nothing  but  consume  the  proceeds  of 
it.  There  every  man  possesses  the  full  fruit  of 
his  labor,  except  so  far  as  he  himself  joins  with 
his  fellow-citizens  in  setting  apart  a  portion  for 
the  purposes  of  public  and  general  utility.  This 
is  the  reason  why  such  immense  numbers  of  labor- 
ing men  are  every  year  leaving  Germany  and 
emigrating  to  America. 

But  to  return  to  the  Rhine.  Of  course,  just  so 
fast  and  so  far  as  the  smaller  chieftains  were 
conquered  and  dispossessed,  and  the  country  came 
into  the  hands  of  a  smaller  number  of  greater 
princes,  the  old  castles  became  useless.  Besides, 
when  rules  and  laws,  instead  of  surprises  and 
violence,  became  the  means  by  which  contribu- 
tions were  levied,  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to 
have  strongholds  on  high  hills  to  come  down 
from,  when  a  vessel  or  a  traveller  was  coming 
by,  and  to  retreat  to  with  the  booty  when  the 
plunder  had  been  taken.  A  great  number  of 
these  old  castles  have,  therefore,  gone  to  decay  ; 
for  they  were  generally  built  too  high  on  the 
hills  and  rocks  to  be  convenient  as  dwellings  for 
peaceable  men.  A  few  of  the  largest  and  strong- 
est of  them  were  retained  as  fortresses  ;  and  those 
that  were  retained  have  been  greatly  enlarged 


72  ROLLO      ON     THE     RHINE. 

Travellers  exploring  the  ruins  of  ancient  castles. 

and  strengthened  in  their  defences  in  modern 
times,  so  that  some  of  them  are  now  the  greatest 
and  strongest  fortresses  in  the  world.  Others, 
that  were  built  in  tolerably  accessible  situations, 
or  which  commanded  an  unusually  beautiful  view, 
were  retained  and  kept  in  repair,  and  are  used 
now  as  the  summer  residences  of  wealthy  men. 
The  rest  were  suffered  gradually  to  go  to  decay, 
and  the  ruins  and  remains  of  them  are  seen 
crowning  almost  every  remarkable  height  all 
along  the  river.  Some  of  these  ruins  are  still 
in  a  very  good  state  of  preservation,  so  that  in 
going  up  to  explore  them  you  can  make  out  very 
easily  the  whole  original  plan  of  the  edifice. 
You  can  find  the  turret,  with  the  remains  of  the 
stairs  which  led  up  to  the  watchtower,  and  the 
kitchen,  and  the  hall,  and  the  armory,  and  the 
stables.  In  others,  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen 
but  a  confused  mass  of  unintelligible  ruins  ;  and 
in  others  still,  every  thing  is  gone,  except,  per- 
haps, some  single  arch  or  gateway,  which  stands 
among  a  mass  of  shapeless  mounds,  the  last  re- 
maining relic  of  the  edifice  it  once  adorned,  and 
itself  tottering,  perhaps,  on  the  brink  of  its  pre- 
cipitous foundation,  as  if  just  ready  to  fall. 

These  old  ruins  are  visited  every  year  by  thou- 
sands of  persons  who  come  from  every  part  of 
the  world  to   see  them.     These  visitors  arrive 


DONKEY   RIDING. 


TrA\  i^LLING     ON     THE      RHINE.      75 
How  to  travel  on  the  Rhine.  Donkey  saddles. 

every  year  in  such  numbers  that  the  steamboats, 
both  going  up  and  coming  down,  and  all  tho 
hotels,  and  thousands  of  carriages,  which  are 
perpetually  plying  to  and  fro  along  the  shores  on 
both  sides  of  the  river,  are  constantly  filled  with 
them.  A  great  many  people  merely  pass  up  ov 
down  the  river  in  a  steamer,  in  a  day  and  a  night, 
and  only  see  the  ruins  and  the  other  scenery  by 
gazing  at  them  from  the  deck  of  the  vessel. 
But  in  this  case  they  get  no  idea  whatever  of  the 
Rhine.  It  is  necessary  to  travel  slowly,  to  stop 
frequently  at  the  towns  on  the  bank,  to  make  ex- 
cursions along  the  shores  and  into  the  interior, 
and  to  ascend  to  the  sites  of  the  ruins,  and  to 
other  elevated  points,  so  as  to  view  the  valley  and 
the  stream  meandering  through  it  from  above,  or 
you  obtain  no  correct  idea  whatever  of  travelling 
on  the  Rhine. 

The  work  of  ascending  to  the  old  ruins  would 
be  a  very  arduous  and  difficult  one  for  all  but  the 
young  and  robust,  were  it  not  for  the  assistance 
that  is  afforded  by  the  donkeys  that  are  kept  at 
the  foot  of  every  remarkable  hill  that  travellers 
might  be  supposed  desirous  to  ascend.  These 
donkeys  have  a  sort  of  chair  fitted  upon  them, 
that  is,  a  saddle,  flat  upon  the  top,  and  guarded 
all  around  one  side  by  a  sort  of  back,  like  the 
back  of  a  chair.     The  trappings  are  covered  with 


76  Hollo    on    the    Rhine. 

Height  of  the  bills  upon  the  Rhine. 

some  kind  of  scarlet  cloth,  so  that  the  troop  of 
donkeys  standing  together  under  the  shade  of  the 
trees,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  which  they  are  to 
ascend,  make  a  very  gay  appearance.  The  donkeys 
look  very  small  to  bear  so  heavy  a  load  as  a  full 
grown  person  ;  but  they  are  very  strong,  and  they 
carry  their  burden  quite  easily,  especially  as  the 
distance  is  not  very  great.  For  these  mountains 
of  the  Rhine,  celebrated  as  they  are  for  the 
romantic  grandeur  which  they  impart  to  the 
scenery,  are,  after  all,  seldom  more  than  a  few 
hundred  feet  high.  There  is  also,  almost  always, 
an  excellent  path  leading  up  to  them.  It  winds 
usually  by  zigzags  through  the  groves  of  trees,  or 
between  gardens  and  vineyards,  in  a  very  delight- 
ful manner,  so  that  the  ascent  in  going  up  any 
of  these  hills  would  make  a  very  pleasant  excur- 
sion even  without  the  ruins  on  the  top. 

Such,  in  its  general  features,  is  the  mountain- 
ous region  of  the  Rhine,  as  it  appears  to  the 
travellers  who  go  to  visit  it  at  the  present  day  ; 
and  it  was  this  region  that  Rollo  and  Mr.  George 
were  now  going  to  explore. 


The    Sieben    Gebirgen.  77 

Sieben  Gebirgen.  The  Drachenfels.  The  ruins. 


Chapter    V . 

The    Sieben    Gebirgen. 

The  word  Sieben  means  seven,  and  Gebirgen 
means  mountains*  Thus  the  Sieben  Gebirgen  is 
the  Seven  Mountains.  It  is  the  name  given  to  a 
mountainous  mass  of  land  which  rises  into  seven 
or  more  principal  peaks,  just  at  the  entrance  of 
the  romantic  part  of  the  Rhine.  The  highest  of 
these  mountains  is  the  celebrated  Drachenfels, 
which  has  a  ruined  castle  on  the  top  of  it,  and 
an  inn  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers  just 
below.  The  Seven  Mountains  and  Drachenfels 
are  on  the  east  bank  of  the  river.  Opposite  to 
them  on  the  left  bank  are  some  other  remarkable 
mountains,  crowned  also  with  celebrated  ruins. 
The  river  flows  between  these  highlands  as 
through  a  gateway.  They  form,  in  fact,  the  com- 
mencement of  the  mountainous  region  of  the 
Rhine,  in  ascending  the  river  from  Cologne.f 

*  The  words  are  pronounced  as  they  are  spelled,  except  that 
the  g  in  Gebirgen  is  hard. 
f  The  reader  must  be  very  careful  to  get  the  idea  right  in  his 


78  R0L  LO      ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  railroad  to  Bonn.  The  palace  which  became  a  university. 

The  large  town  next  below  where  these  moun- 
tains commence  is  Bonn,  which  is,  perhaps,  thirty 
or  forty  miles  above  Cologne.  The  country  up 
as  far  as  Bonn  from  Cologne  is  pretty  level,  and 
a  railroad  has  been  made  there.  At  Bonn  the 
mountains  begin,  and  the  railroad  has  accordingly 
not  been  yet  carried  any  farther.  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo  went  up  to  Bonn  by  the  railroad. 

Mr.  George  wished  to  stop  at  Bonn  for  half  a 
day  to  visit  a  celebrated  university  that  is  there. 
The  buildings  of  this  university  were  formerly  a 
palace  ;  but  they  were  afterwards  given  up  to 
the  use  of  the  university,  which  subsequently  be- 
came one  of  the  most  distinguished  seminaries  of 
learning  in  Europe.  Mr.  George  wished  to  visit 
this  university.  He  had  letters  of  introduction 
to  some  of  the  professors.  He  wished  also  to 
see  the  library  and  the  cabinets  of  natural  his- 
tory that  were  there.  He  invited  Rollo  to  go 
with  him,  but  Rollo  concluded  not  to  go.  He 
would  have  liked  to  have  seen  the  library  very 
well,  and  the  cabinets,  but  he  was  rather  afraid 
of  the  professors. 

So,  while  Mr.  George  went  to  visit  the  literary 
institution,  Rollo   amused   himself  by  rambling 

mind  in  respect  to  which  way  is  up  on  the  Rhine.  The  river  flow? 
north.  Of  course,  in  looking  on  the  map,  what  is  down  on  the 
page  is  up  in  respect  to  the  flow  of  the  river. 


The    Sieben    Gebirgex.  79 

Rollo's  ramble.  The  prospect.  Going  up  the  river. 

about  the  town,  and  looking  at  the  quaint  old 
churches,  and  the  houses,  and  the  fortifications, 
and  in  strolling  along  the  quay,  by  the  shore  of 
the  river,  to  see  the  steamers  and  tow  boats  go 
up  and  down. 

At  length  he  went  to  the  hotel.  The  hotel 
was  just  without  the  gates,  near  the  river. 
There  was  a  garden  between  the  hotel  and  the 
river,  with  a  terrace  at  the  margin  of  it,  over- 
looking the  water,  where  there  were  tables  and 
chairs  ready  for  any  person  who  might  choose 
to  take  coffee  or  any  other  refreshments  there. 
Mr.  George's  room  was  on  this  side  of  the  hotel, 
and  being  pretty  high  it  overlooked  the  gardens, 
and  the  terrace,  and  the  river,  and  afforded  a 
charming  view.  Up  the  river,  on  the  other  side, 
about  three  or  four  miles  off,  the  Sieben  Gebirgen 
were  plainly  to  be  seen,  the  summits  of  them 
tipped  with  ancient  ruins. 

After  Rollo  had  been  sitting  there  about  half 
an  hour,  Mr.  George  came  home.  It  was  then 
about  one  o'clock. 

"  Well,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "  we  are  going  up  the 
river.  I  have  engaged  the  landlord  to  send  us 
up  in  a  carriage  to  some  pleasant  place  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  among  the  mountains,  where 
we  can  spend  the  Sabbath." 

"  Why,  what  day  is  it?  "  asked  Rollo. 


80  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E. 

The  fbrune  of  war.  A  contented  traveller 

"  It  is  Saturday,"  replied  Mr.  George. 

Rollo  was  quite  surprised  to  find  that  it  waa 
Saturday.  In  fact,  in  travelling  on  the  Rhine, 
as  there  is  so  little  to  mark  or  distinguish  one 
day  from  another,  we  almost  always  soon  lose 
our  reckoning. 

"  What  is  the  name  of  the  place  where  we  are 
going  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Mr.  George.  "  I  can- 
not understand  very  well.  He  is  going  to  send 
us  somewhere.  How  it  will  turn  out  I  cannot 
tell.     We  must  trust  to  the  fortune  of  war." 

Mr.  George  often  called  the  luck  that  befell 
him  in  travelling  the  fortune  of  war.  "If  we 
were  contented,"  he  would  say,  "  to  travel  over 
and  over  again  in  places  that  we  know,  then  we 
could  make  some  calculations,  and  could  know 
beforehand,  in  most  cases,  where  we  were  going 
and  how  we  should  come  out.  But  in  travelling 
in  new  and  strange  places  we  cannot  tell  at  all, 
especially  when  there  is  no  language  that  we 
can  communicate  well  with  the  people  in.  So  we 
have  to  trust  to  the  fortune  of  war." 

Mr.  George,  however,  determined  to  make  one 
more  effort  to  find  out  where  he  was  going  ;  and 
so,  when  the  carriage  came  to  the  door,  and  he 
and  Rollo  were  about  to  get  into  it,  he  asked  the 
porter  of  the  house  —  who   was  the  man   that 


The    Sieben    Gebirgen.  81 

The  German  porter  tells  Mr.  George  where  they  are  going. 

"  spoke  English  "  —  what  the  name  of  the  place 
was  where  'hey  were  going  to  stop. 

"  Yes,  sare,"  replied  the  man.  "  You  will  stop. 
You  will  go  to  Poppensdorf  and  to  Kreitzberg, 
and  then  you  will  go  to  Gottesberg,  and  then  you 
will  go  to  Rolandseck,  where  there  is  a  boat  that 
will  take  you  to  Drachenfels,  or  to  Koenigs- 
winter." 

He  said  all  this  with  so  strong  a  German  ac- 
cent, and  pronounced  the  barbarous  words  with 
sg  foreign  an  intonation,  that  no  trace  or  impres- 
sion whatever  was  left  by  them  on  Mr.  George's 
ear. 

"  But  which  is  the  place,"  asked  Mr.  George, 
speaking  very  deliberately  and  plainly,  —  "  which 
is  the  place  where  we  are  to  be  left  by  the  car- 
riage to  stay  on  Sunday  ?  Is  it  Rolandseck  or 
Koenigswinter  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sare,"  said  the  porter,  making  a  very 
polite  bow.  "  Yes,  sare,  you  will  go  to  Roland- 
seck, and  to  Kreitzberg,  and  to  Gottesberg,  and 
if  you  please  you  can  stop  at  Poppensdorf." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  Tell  him  to 
drive  on." 

This  is  a  tolerably  fair  specimen  of  the  success 
to  which  travellers,  and  the  porters,  and  waiters, 
who  "  speak  English,"  attain  to,  in  their  attempts 
to  understand  one  another.     In  fact,  the  attempts 


82  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E  . 

Amusing  mistakes  of  the  waiter. 

of  these  domestic  linguists  to  speak  English  ar« 
sometimes  still  more  unfortunate  than  their  at- 
tempts to  understand  it.  One  of  them,  in  talk- 
ing to  Mr.  George,  said  "  No,  yes,"  for  no,  sir. 
Another  told  Rollo  that  the  dinner  would  be 
ready  in  fiveteen  minutes,  and  a  very  worthy 
landlord,  in  commenting  on  the  pleasant  weather, 
said  that  the  time  was  very  agregable.  So  a 
waiter  said  one  day  that  the  bifstek  was  just 
coming  up  out  of  the  kriken.  He  meant  kitchen. 
The  place  where  the  porter,  who  engaged  the 
carriage  for  Mr.  George,  intended  to  leave  him, 
was  really  Rolandseck.  Rolandseck  is  the  name 
of  a  ruined  arch,  the  remains  of  an  ancient  tower 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  engraving  a  little  far- 
ther on,  upon  the  height  of  land  on  the  left  side 
of  the  view.  The  lofty  ruin  on  the  right,  farther 
in  the  distance,  is  Drachenfels.  At  the  foot  of 
Dracbenfels,  a  little  farther  down  the  river,  — 
and  we  are  looking  down  the  river  in  the  en- 
graving, —  is  a  town  called  Koenigswinter,  which 
is  the  place  that  people  usually  set  out  from  to 
ascend  the  mountain,  a  great  number  of  donkeys 
being  kept  there  for  that  purpose.  Beneath  the 
tower  of  Rolandseck,  near  the  margin  of  the 
water,  is  a  row  of  three  or  four  houses,  two  of 
which  are  hotels.  The  land  rises  so  suddenly 
from  the  river  here,  that  there  is  barely  room  for 


The    Sieben    Gebikgen.  83 

The  town  of  Kcenigswinter.  Rolandseck  and  Nonnenwerth. 

the  road  and  the  houses  between  the  water  and 
the  hill.  In  fact,  the  road  itself  is  terraced  up 
with  a  wall  ten  or  fifteen  feet  high  towards  the 
water,  and  the  houses  in  the  same  manner  from 
the  road.  You  enter  them,  indeed,  from  the  level 
of  the  road  ;  but  you  are  immediately  obliged  to 
ascend  a  staircase  to  reach  the  principal  floor  of 
the  house,  which  is  ten  or  fifteen  feet  above  the 
road,  and  the  gardens  of  the  house  are  on  terraces 
raised  to  that  height  by  a  wall.  Thus  from  the 
gardens  and  terraces  you  look  down  fifteen  feet 
over  a  wall  to  the  road,  and  from  the  road  you 
look  down  fifteen  feet  over  a  wall  to  the  water. 
Along  the  outer  margin  of  the  road  is  a  broad 
stone  wall  or  parapet,  flat  at  the  top  and  about 
three  feet  high.  All  this  you  can  see  represented 
in  the  engraving. 

In  the  middle  of  the  river,  opposite  to  the  hotels, 
is  a  very  beautiful  island  with  a  nunnery  upon 
it.  This  island  is  called  Nonnenwerth.  Now,  in 
regard  to  all  these  castles  and  churches,  and 
other  sacred  edifices  on  the  Rhine,  there  is  almost 
always  some  old  legend  or  romantic  tale,  which 
has  come  down  through  succeeding  generations 
from  ancient  times,  and  which  adds  very  much  to 
the  interest  of  the  locality  where  the  incidents 
occurred.  The  tale  in  respect  to  Rolandseck 
and    Nonnenwerth    is    this :     Roland    was    the 


8-1  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  legend  of  Dradienfels. 

nephew  of  the  great  monarch  and  conqueror, 
Charlemagne.  He  became  engaged  to  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  chieftain  who  lived  in  Drachenfels, 
the  ruins  of  which  you  see  in  the  engraving 
crowning  the  hill  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river, 
some  little  distance  down  the  stream.  In  a  bat- 
tle in  which  he  was  engaged,  he  killed  his  in- 
tended father-in-law  by  accident,  being  deceived 
by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and  thinking  that 
he  was  striking  an  enemy  instead  of  a  friend 
After  this,  he  could  not  be  married  to  his  in- 
tended bride,  the  etiquette  of  those  days  forbid- 
ding that  a  warrior  should  marry  one  whose 
father  he  had  slain.  The  maiden,  in  her  grief 
and  despair,  betook  herself  to  the  nunnery  on  the 
island  near  her  father's  castle,  and  Roland,  since 
he  could  not  be  permitted  to  visit  her  there,  built 
a  tower  on  the  nearest  pinnacle  of  the  opposite 
shore,  in  order  that  he  might  live  there,  and  at 
least  comfort  himself  with  a  sight  of  the  build- 
ing where  his  beloved  was  confined.  The  story 
is,  however,  that  the  unhappy  nun  lived  but  a 
short  time.  Roland  himself,  however,  continued 
to  live  in  his  tower,  a  lonely  hermit,  for  many 
fears. 

Another  version  of  this  legend  is,  that  the 
maiden  was  led  to  go  to  the  convent  and  conse- 
crate herself  as   a   nun,   on    account  of  a  false 


The    Sieben    Gebirgen.  86 

The  pavilion  upon  the  rock. 

report  which  she  had  heard,  that  Roland  himself 
was  killed  i :  the  battle,  and.  that  when  she 
learned,  that  he  was  still  alive,  it  was  too  late  for 
her  to  be  released  from  her  vows.  However 
this  may  be,  Roland  retired  to  this  lofty  tower, 
in  order  to  be  as  near  her  as  possible,  and.  to  be 
able  to  look  down  upon  the  dwelling  where  she 
lived.  How  well  he  could  do  this  you  can 
easily  see  by  observing  how  finely  the  ruined 
tower  on  the  top  of  the  hill  commands  a  view  of 
the  river  and  of  the  island,  as  well  as  of  the  nun- 
nery itself,  imbosomed  in  the  trees. 

A  little  below  the  ruin  of  Roland's  Tower  you 
see  a  pavilion  on  a  point  of  the  rock,  which, 
though  somewhat  lower  in  respect  to  elevation, 
projects  farther  towards  the  stream,  and.  conse- 
quently commands  a  finer  view.  This  pavilion 
has  been  erected  very  lately  by  a  gentleman  who 
lives  in  one  of  the  houses  at  the  margin  of  the 
road,  and  who  owns  the  vineyards  that  cover  the 
slope  of  the  hill.  The  road  to  it  leads  up  among 
these  vineyards  through  the  gentleman's  grounds, 
but  he  leaves  it  open  in  order  that  visitors  who 
ascend,  up  to  Roland's  Tower  may  go  to  the 
pavilion  on  the  way,  and  enjoy  the  view. 

It  was  to  one  of  these  hotels  at  Rolandseck 
that  the  porter  at  Bonn  had  arranged  to  send 
Mr.  George,  as  the  pleasantest  place  that  waa 


ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H I N  E 


The  beauty  of  the  ride  from  Bonn  to  Rolandseck. 

near  to  spend  the  Sabbath  in.  He  could  not 
have  made  a  better  selection. 

The  ride,  too,  in  the  carriage  from  Bonn  up  to 
Rolandseck,  was  delightful.  Nothing  could  be 
more  enchanting  than  the  scenery  which  was  pre- 
sented to  view  on  every  hand.  The  carriage,  like 
all  the  other  private  carriages  used  for  travellers 
on  the  Rhine,  was  an  open  barouche,  and  when 
the  top  was  down  it  afforded  an  entirely  unob- 
structed view.  The  day  was  pleasant,  and  yet  the 
sun  was  so  obscured  with  clouds  that  it  was  not 
warm,  and  Rollo  stood  up  in  the  carriage  nearly 
all  the  way,  supporting  himself  there  by  taking 
hold  of  the  back  of  the  driver's  seat,  and  look- 
ing about  him  on  every  side,  uttering  continual 
exclamations  of  wonder  and  delight.  He  at- 
tempted once  or  twice  to  talk  with  the  driver, 
trying  him  in  French  and  English  ;  but  the  driver 
understood  nothing  but  German,  and  so  the  con- 
versation soon  settled  down  to  an  occasional  Was 
ist  das  ?  from  Rollo,  and  a  long  reply  to  the 
question  from  the  driver,  not  a  word  of  which 
Rollo  was  able  to  understand. 

They  passed  out  of  Bonn  by  means  of  a  most 
singular  avenue.  It  was  formed  of  a  very  broad 
space  in  the  centre,  which  seemed,  by  its  place,  to 
have  been  intended  for  the  road  way  ;  but  instead 
of  being  a  road  way,  it  was  covered  with  a  rich 


The    Sieben    Gebirgen.  87 

Tlie  avenue  from  Bonn.  Kre;tzberg.  The  sacred  stairs. 


growth  of  grass,  like  a  mowing  field.  On  each 
Bide  of  this  green  were  two  rows  of  trees,  which 
bordered  a  sort  of  wide  sidewalk,  of  which  thero 
were  two,  one  on  each  side  of  the  road.  These 
side  passages  were  the  carriage  ways. 

"  Sec,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo.  "  The  road 
has  all  grown  np  to  grass,  and  we  are  riding  on 
the  sidewalk." 

The  carriage  passed  on,  and  when  it  reached 
the  end  of  the  avenue,  it  came  to  a  beautiful  and 
extensive  edifice,  standing  in  the  midst  of  groves 
and  gardens,  which  was  formerly  a  chateau,  but 
is  now  used  for  a  museum  of  natural  history. 
Here  were  arranged  the  cabinets  which  Mr. 
George  had  been  to  sec  that  morning.  Passing 
this  place,  the  carriage  gradually  ascended  a 
tong  hill,  on  the  summit  of  which,  half  concealed 
by  groves  of  trees,  was  an  ancient-looking  church. 
Mr.  George  had  seen  this  hill  before  from  the 
windows  of  the  hotel,  and  knew  it  must  be  the 
Kreitzberg. 

"  He  is  taking  us  to  the  Kreitzberg,"  said  Mr. 
G  eorge. 

"  What  is  that  famous  for  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  It  is  an  ancient  church,  on  the  top  of  a  high 
hill,"  said  Mr.  George,  "where  there  is  a  flight 
of  stairs  made  to  imitate  those  that  Jesus  as- 
cended at  Jerusalem,  when  he  went  to  Pilate's 


R  0  L  L  0     ON     THE     RHINE 


Strange  relics  in  the  churches  and  monasteries  of  Germany. 

judgment  hall.     Nobody  is  allowed  to  go  up  or 
down  these  stairs  except  on  their  knees. 

"  Then,  besides,"  continued  Mr.  George,  look- 
ing along  the  page  of  his  guide  book  as  he  spoke, 
"  the  air  is  so  dry  up  at  the  top  of  this  high  hill, 
that  the  bodies  of  the  old  monks,  who  were  buried 
there  hundreds  of  years  ago,  did  not  corrupt,  but 
they  dried  up  and  turned  into  a  sort  of  natui  al 
mummies  ;  and  there  they  lie  now  under  the 
church,  in  open  coffins,  in  full  view." 

"  Let  us  go  down  and  see  them,"  said  Rollo 
What  Mr.  George  said  was  true ;  and  these 
things  are  but  a  specimen  of  the  strange  and 
curious  legends  and  tales  that  are  told  to  the 
traveller,  and  of  the  extraordinary  relics  and 
wonders  that  are  exhibited  to  his  view,  in  the  old 
churches  and  monasteries,  which  are  almost  as 
numerous  as  the  castles,  on  the  Rhine.  The  car- 
riage, after  ascending  a  long  time,  stopped  at  a 
gate  by  the  way  side,  whence  a  long,  straight 
road  led  up  to  the  church,  which  stood- on  the  very 
summit  of  the  hill.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  got 
out  and  walked  up.  When  they  drew  near  to 
the  church,  they  turned  round  to  admire  the 
splendor  of  the  landscape,  and  to  see  if  the  car- 
riage was  still  waiting  for  them  below.  They 
saw  that  the  carriage  still  stood  there,  and  that 
there  was  another   one   there   too,   and   that  a 


The    Sieben    Gebirgen.  89 

Kollo  meets  Minnie  again. 

party  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  were  descending 
from  it  to  conic  up  and  see  the  church.  There 
was  a  little  girl  in  this  party. 

"  I  should  not  wonder  if  that  was  Minnie," 
■<aii  Rollo. 

In  a  short  time  this  party,  with  a  commissioner 
at  the  head  of  them,  came  up  the  walk.  The  girl 
proved  to  be  really  Minnie.  She  seemed  very 
glad  to  see  Rollo,  and  she  stopped  to  speak  with 
him  while  the  rest  of  the  party  went  on. 

Rollo  and  Minnie  followed  closely  behind. 
The  commissioner  led  the  way  round  to  the  side 
of  the  church,  where  there  were  some  other  an- 
cient buildings,  which  were  formerly  a  nunnery. 
Here  they  found  a  man  who  had  the  care  of  the 
place.  ,  He  was  a  sacristan.*  He  brought  a 
great  key,  and  unlocked  the  church  door,  and  let 
the  party  in. 

The  interior  of  the  church  was  very  quaint 
and  queer,  —  as  in  truth  the  interiors  of  all  the 
old  churches  are  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  — 
and  was  adorned  with  a  great  many  curious  old 
effigies  and  paintings.  After  waiting  a  few  min- 
utes for  the  company  to  look  at  these,  the  sacris- 
tan went  to  a  place  in  the  middle  of  the  churcb 


•  A  sacristan  is  an  officer  who  has  charge  of  the  sacred  utensils 
Mid  other  property  of  the  church,  and  who  shows  them  to  visitors. 


90  ROLLO      ON      THE      RHIXE 


Going  down  to  see  the  monks. 


before  the  altar,  and  lifted  up  a  great  trap  door 
in  the  floor.  When  the  door  was  lifted  up,  a 
flight  of  steps  was  seen  leading  down  under 
ground. 

"  Where  are  the}'  going  now  ?  "  said  Minnie. 

"  I  suppose  they  are  going  down  to  see  the 
monks,"  said  Rollo. 

The  party  went  down  the  stairs,  Rollo  and 
Minnie  following  them.  The  sacristan  had  two 
candles  in  his  hands.  As  soon  as  he  got  to  the 
bottom  of  the  stairs,  he  passed  along  a  narrow 
passage  way  between  two  rows  of  open  coffins, 
placed  close  together  side  by  side,  and  in  each 
coffin  was  a  dead  man,  his  flesh  dried  to  a  mum- 
my, his  clothes  all  in  tatters,  and  his  face,  though 
shrivelled  and  dried  up,  still  preserving  enough 
of  the  human  expression  to  make  the  specta- 
cle perfectly  horrid.  When  Rollo  and  Minnie 
reached  the  place  near  enough  to  see  what  was 
there,  the  sacristan  was  moving  his  candles  about 
over  the  coffins,  one  in  each  hand,  so  -as  to  show 
the  bodies  plainly.  At  the  first  glance  which 
Minnie  obtained  of  this  shocking  sight,  she  ut- 
tered a  scream,  and  ran  up  the  stairs  again  aa 
fast  as  she  could  go. 

Rollo  followed  her,  but  somewhat  more  slowly. 
When  he  came  out  into  the  church,  he  caught  a 
glimpse  of  Minnie's  dress,  as  she  was  just  making 


The    Sieben    Gebiegen.  91 

A  description  of  the  sacred  staircase  at  Kreitzberg. 

her  escape  from  the  door.  Rollo  would  have  fol- 
lowed her,  but  he  was  afraid  of  losing  his  uncle 
George. 

When  the  party,  at  length,  came  up  from 
their  visit  to  the  dead  monks,  they  went  to  see 
the  sacred  staircase.  Rollo  went  with  them. 
The  staircase  seemed  to  be  at  the  main  entrance 
to  the  church  :  the  party  had  gone  round  to  a 
door  in  the  side  where  they  came  in. 

The  sacred  stairs  occupied  the  centre  of  the 
hall  in  which  they  were  placed.  There  were  on 
the  sides  two  plain  and  common  flights  of  stairs, 
for  people  to  go  up  and  down  in  the  usual  way. 
The  sacred  stairs  in  the  centre  could  only  be 
ascended  and  descended  on  the  knees. 

The  side  stairs  were  separated  from  the  cen- 
tral flight  by  a  solid  balustrade  or  wall,  not  very 
high,  so  that  people  who  came  to  see  the  sacred 
steps  could  stand  on  the  side  steps  and  look  over. 
The  flight  of  sacred  steps  was  very  wide,  and 
was  built  of  a  richly  variegated  marble,  of  brown, 
red,  and  yellow  colors,  intermingled  together  in 
the  stone  ;  and  some  of  the  stains  were  said 
to  have  been  produced  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 
Here  and  there,  too,  on  the  different  steps  of  the 
ftaircase,  were  to  be  seen  little  bra^s  plates  let 
into  the  stone,  beneath  which  were  small  caskets 
containing  sacred  relics  of  various  kinds,  such  as 


02  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Parting  with  the  sacristan  and  with  Minnie. 

small  pieces  of  wood  of  the  true  cross,  and  frag 
raents  of  the  bones  of  saints  and  apostles. 
Neither  Mr.  George  nor  Rollo  took  much  in- 
terest in  this  exhibition  ;  and  so,  giving  the  sacris- 
tan a  small  piece  of  money,  they  went  back  to 
their  carriage.  As  Rollo  got  into  the  carriage 
that  he  had  come  in,  he  saw  that  Minnie  was 
seated  in  hers,  and  she  nodded  her  head  when 
Rollo's  carriage  moved  away,  to  bid  him  good  by. 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  passed  one  or  two  other 
very  picturesque  and  venerable  looking  ruins  on 
the  way  up  the  river,  but  they  did  not  stop  to  go 
and  explore  any  of  them.  In  one  place,  too, 
they  rode  along  a  sort  of  terrace,  where  the 
view  over  the  river,  and  over  the  fields  and  vine- 
yards beyond,  was  perfectly  enchanting.  Mr. 
George  said  he  had  never  before  seen  so  beauti- 
ful a  view.  It  was  at  a  place  where  the  road 
had  been  walled  up  high  along  the  side  of  a  hill, 
at  some  distance  from  the  river,  so  that  the  view 
from  the  carriage,  as  it  moved  rapidly  along, 
extended  over  the  whole  valley.  The  fields  and 
vineyards,  the  groves  and  orchards,  the  broad 
river,  the  zigzag  paths  leading  up  the  mountain 
sides,  the  steamers  and  canal  boats  gliding  up 
and  down  over  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the 
mountains  beyond,  with  the  rocky  summit  of 
Drachenfel?,  crowned  with  its  castle,  towering 


The    Sieben    Gebiegen.  93 


Byron's  stanzas  on  the  Drachenfels. 


among  them,  combined  to  make  the  whole  picture 
appear  like  a  scene  of  enchantment. 

The  poet  Byron  described  this  view  in  three 
stanzas,  which  have  been  read  and  admired 
wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  and 
have  made  the  name  of  Drachenfels  more  famil- 
iar to  English  and  American  ears  than  the  name 
of  almost  any  other  castle  on  the  Rhine. 


DKAC  H  ENFEL8. 

The  castled  crag  of  Drachenfels 

Frowns  o'er  the  wide  and  winding  Rhine, 
Whose  breast  of  waters  broadly  swells 

Between  the  banks  which  bear  the  vine  ; 
And  hills  all  rich  with  blossomed  trees, 

And  fields  which  promise  corn  and  wine, 
And  scattered  cities  crowning  these, 

Whose  far  white  walls  along  them  shine, 
Have  strewed  a  scene  which  I  should  see 
With  double  joy  wert  thou  with  me. 

And  peasant  girls  with  deep  blue  eyes, 

And  hands  which  offer  early  flowers, 
Walk  smiling  o'er  this  paradise ; 

Above,  the  frequent  feudal  towers 
Through  green  fields  lift  their  walls  of  gray  ; 

And  many  a  rock  which  steeply  lowers, 
And  noble  arch  in  proud  decay, 

Look  o'er  this  vale  of  vintage  bowers ; 
But  one  thing  want  these  banks  of  Rhine  — • 
Thy  gentle  hand  to  clasp  in  mine ! 


94 


EOLLO     ON     THE     RHINE 


The  arrival  at  Rolandscclc. 


The  river  nobly  foams  and  flows, 

The  charm  of  this  enchanted  ground, 
And  all  its  thousand  turns  disclose 

Some  fresher  beauty  varying  round  : 
The  haughtiest  breast  its  wish  might  bound 

Through  life  to  dwell  delighted  here  ; 
Nor  could  on  earth  a  spot  be  found 

To  nature  and  to  me  so  dear, 
Could  thy  dear  eyes  in  following  mine 
Still  sweeten  more  these  banks  of  Rhine. 


In  due  time,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  arrived  at 
Rolandseck,  where  they  were  received  very  po- 
litely by  the  landlord  of  the  inn,  and  introduced 
to  a  very  pleasant  room,  the  windows  of  which 
commanded  a  fine  view  both  of  Drachenfels  and 
of  the  river. 


Roland's    Tower.  95 


The  first  th  ng  to  be  thought  of. 


c  h  apter    vi. 
Roland's    Tower. 

"  And  now,"  said  Mr.  George,  as  soon  as  the 
porter  had  put  down  his  trunk  and  gone  out  of  the 
room,  "  the  first  thing  to  be  thought  of  is  dinner." 

Rollo  was  also  ready  for  a  dinner,  especially 
for  such  excellent  little  dinners  of  beefsteaks, 
fried  potatoes,  nice  bread  and  butter,  and  cof- 
fee, as  his  uncle  usually  ordered.  So,  after  re- 
freshing themselves  a  few  minutes  in  their  room, 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  down  stairs  in  order 
to  go  into  the  dining  room  to  call  for  a  dinner. 
As  they  passed  through  the  hall,  they  saw  a  door 
there  which  opened  out  upon  beautifully  orna- 
mented grounds  behind  the  house.  The  land  as- 
cended very  suddenly,  it  is  true,  but  there  were 
broad  gravel  paths  of  easy  grade  to  go  up  by  ; 
and  there  were  groves,  and  copses  of  shrubbery, 
and  blooming  flowers,  in  great  abundance,  on  ev- 
ery hand.  On  looking  up,  too,  Rollo  saw  several 
seats,  at  different  elevations,  where  he  supposed 
there  must  be  good  views. 


96  R  0  L  L  0     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Dinner  in  the  garden. 

While  they  were  standing  at  this  door,  look- 
ing out  upon  the  grounds,  a  waiter  came  by,  and 
they  told  him  what  they  wished  to  have  for 
dinner. 

"  Very  well,"  said  the  waiter  ;  "  and  where  will 
you  have  it  ?  You  can  have  it  in  your  room,  or 
in  the  dining  room,  or  in  the  garden,  just  as  you 
please." 

"  Let  us  have  it  in  the  garden,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  in  the  garden." 

So  the  young  gentlemen  went  out  into  the  gar 
ien  to  choose  a  table  and  a  place,  while  the 
waiter  went  to  make  arrangements  for  their 
dinner. 

The  part  of  the  garden  where  the  seats  and 
the  tables  were  placed  was  a  level  terrace,  not 
behind  the  house,  but  in  a  line  with  it,  at  the  end, 
so  that  it  fronted  the  road,  and  commanded  a  very 
fine  view  both  of  the  road  and  of  the  river,  as 
well  as  of  all  the  people,  and  carriages,  and 
boats  that  were  passing  up  and  down.  This  ter- 
race was  high  up  above  the  road,  being  walled 
up  on  that  side,  as  I  have  already  described  ;  and 
there  was  a  parapet  in  front,  to  prevent  people 
from  falling  down.  This  parapet  was,  however, 
not  so  high  but  that  Rollo  could  look  over  it 
very  conveniently,  and  see  all  that  was  passing 
in  the  road  and  on  the  river  below      There  was 


Roland's    Tower.  97 

The  beautiful  appearance  of  the  garden. 

a  sort  of  roof,  like  an  awning,  over  this  place,  to 
shelter  it  from  the  sun  and  the  rain  ;  and  there 
were  trees  and  trellises  behind,  and  at  the  ends, 
to  enclose  it,  and  give  it  an  air  of  seclusion. 
The  trellises  were  covered  with  grapevines,  on 
which  many  clusters  of  grapes  were  seen,  that 
had  already  grown  quite  large.  Numerous  flower 
pots,  containing  a  great  many  brilliant  flowers  all 
in  bloom,  were  placed  in  various  positions,  to 
enliven  and  adorn  the  scene.  Some  were  on  the 
tables,  some  on  benches  behind  them,  and  there 
were  six  of  the  finest  of  them  placed  at  regular 
intervals  upon  the  parapet,  on  the  side  towards 
the  street.  These  last  gave  the  gardens  a  very 
attractive  appearance  as  seen  outside,  by  people 
going  by  in  carriages  along  the  road,  or  in  boats 
on  the  river. 

Hollo  and  Mr.  George  chose  a  table  that  stood 
near  the  parapet,  in  the  middle  of  the  space  be- 
tween two  of  the  flower  pots,  and  siting  down 
they  amused  themselves  by  looking  over  the  wall 
until  the  waiter  brought  them  their  dinner.* 
The  dinner  came  at  length,  and  the  travellers 
immediately,  with  excellent  appetites,  commenced 
eating  it. 

"  Uncle  George,"   said   Rollo,  in  the  middle 


For  a  view  of  this  part  of  the  river  see  frontispiece. 

»7 


98  ROLLO     ON      THE      RHINE. 

Hollo's  lameness.  The  donkeys  at  the  foot  of  the  hill. 

of  the  dinner,  "  my  feet  are  getting  '  pretty 
lame." 

"  Are  they  ?  "  said  Mr.  George. 

';  Yes,"  said  Hollo,  "I  have  walked  a  great 
deal  lately." 

"  Then,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  you  must  let  them 
rest.  You  must  go  down  to  the  river  and  bathe 
them  in  the  cool  water  after  dinner,  and  not  walk 
any  more  to-night." 

"  But  I  want  to  go  up  to  Roland's  Tower," 
said  Hollo. 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  perhaps  you  might 
do  that.  You  can  ride  up  on  one  of  the  don- 
keys." 

This  plan  was  accordingly  agreed  to,  and  as  soon 
as  the  dinner  was  ended  it  was  put  in  execution. 

The  donkeys  that  were  used  for  the  ascent  of 
the  hill  to  Roland's  Tower  were  kept  standing,  all 
caparisoued,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  at  the  entrance 
to  a  little  lane  where  the  pathway  commenced. 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  seen  them  standing  there 
when  they  came  along  the  road.  The  place  was 
very  near  where  they  were  sitting  ;  so  that,  after 
finishing  their  dinner,  they  had  only  to  walk  a 
few  steps  through  the  garden,  and  thence  out 
through  a  hack  gate,  when  they  found  themselves 
in  the  lane,  and  the  donkeys  and  the  donkej 
boys  all  before  them. 


Roland's    Tower.  99 

Mounting  the  donkey  Mr.  George's  ascent.  Scrambling. 

Mr.  George  thought  that  he  should  prefer  to 
walk  up  the  mountain  ;  but  Rollo  chose  a  donkey, 
and  with  a  little  assistance  from  Mr.  George  he 
mounted  into  the  seat.  At  first  he  was  afraid 
that  he  might  fall ;  for  the  seat,  though  there  was 
a  sort  of  back  to  it,  as  has  already  been  described, 
to  keep  persons  in,  seemed  rather  unsteady, 
especially  when  the  donkey  began  to  move. 

"  It  will  not  do  much  harm  if  I  do  fall,"  said 
Rollo,  "  for  the  donkey  is  not  much  bigger  than  a 
calf." 

Mr.  George,  who  was  accustomed  to  leave 
Rollo  a  great  deal  to  himself  on  all  occasions, 
did  not  stop  in  this  instance  to  see  him  set  off, 
but  as  soon  as  he  had  got  him  installed  in  his 
seat,  began  to  walk  himself  up  the  pathway, 
with  long  strides,  and  was  soon  hid  from  view 
among  the  grapevines,  at  a  turn  of  the  road, 
leaving  Rollo  to  his  own  resources  with  the  don- 
key and  the  donkey  boy.  At  first  the  donkey 
would  not  go  ;  but  the  boy  soon  compelled  him  to 
set  out,  by  whipping  him  with  the  stick,  and  away 
they  then  went,  all  three  together,  scrambling  up 
the  steep  path  with  a  rapidity  that  made  it  quite 
difficult  for  Rollo  to  keep  his  scat. 

The  paths  leading  up  these  hill  sides  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine  are  entirely  different  from 
any  mountain  paths,  or  any  country  roads,  of  anj 


100  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Zigzag  paths.  The  vineyards.  Pavilion. 

sort,  to  be  seen  in  America.  In  the  first  place 
tLere  is  no  waste  land  at  the  margin  of  them. 
Just  width  enough  is  allowed  for  two  donkeys  or 
mules  to  pass  each  other,  and  then  the  walla 
which  keep  up  the  vineyard  terrace  on  the  upper 
side,  and  enclose  the  vine  plantings  on  the  other, 
come  close  to  the  margin  of  it,  on  both  sides, 
leaving  not  a  foot  to  spare.  The  path  is  made 
and  finished  in  the  most  perfect  manner.  It  is 
gravelled  hard,  so  that  the  rains  may  not  wash  it ; 
and  it  mounts  by  regular  zigzags,  with  seats  or 
resting-places  at  the  turnings,  where  the  traveller 
can  stop  and  enjoy  the  view.  In  fact,  the  paths 
are  as  complete  and  perfect  as  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  it  is  possible  for  them  to  be  made  ;  and 
well  they  may  be  so,  for  it  is  perhaps  fifteen 
hundred  years  since  they  were  laid  out ;  and 
during  this  long  interval,  fifty  generations  of 
vine-dressers  have  worked  upon  them  to  improve 
them  and  to  keep  them  in  order.  In  fact,  it  is 
probable  that  the  roads  and  the  mountain  paths, 
both  in  Switzerland  and  on  the  Rhine,  are  more 
ancient  than  any  thing  else  we  see  there,  except 
the  brooks  and  cascades,  or  the  hills  and  moun- 
tains themselves. 

"When  Rollo  had  got  up  about  two  thirds  the 
height  of  the  hill,  he  came  to  the  pavilion,  which 
you  see  in  the  engraving  standing  on  a  projecting 


Roland's    Tower.  101 

Grand  view  from  the  pavilic  n. 

pinnacle  of  the  rock,  a  little  below  the  ruin, 
There  was  a  gateway  which  led  to  the  pavilion, 
by  a  sort  of  private  path  ;  but  the  gate  was  set 
open,  that  people  might  go  in.  Rollo  dismounted 
from  his  donkey,  and  went  in.  His  uncle  was 
already  there. 

It  is  wholly  impossible  to  describe  the  view 
which  presented  itself  from  this  commanding 
point,  both  up  and  down  the  river,  or  to  give  any 
idea  of  the  impression  produced  upon  the  minds 
of  our  travellers  when  they  stood  leaning  over 
the  balcony,  and  gazed  down  to  the  water  below 
from  the  dizzy  height.  The  pavilion  is  built  of 
stone,  and  is  secured  in  the  most  solid  and  sub- 
stantial manner,  being  very  far  more  perfect  in 
its  construction  than  the  old  towers  and  castles 
were,  whose  remains  have  stood  upon  these  moun- 
tains so  long.  It  will  probably  last,  therefore, 
longer  than  they  have,  and  perhaps  to  the  very 
end  of  time. 

It  stands  on  a  pinnacle  of  basaltic  rock,  which 
here  projects  so  as  actually  to  overhang  its  foun- 
dations. 

The  view  both  up  and  down  the  river  is  in 
conceivably  beautiful  and  grand. 

There  was  no  seat  in  the  pavilion,  but  there 
was  one  against  the  rocks,  and  under  the  shades 
of  the  trees  just  behind  it  ;  and  here  Mr.  George 


102  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE 


Roll«  concludes  to  walk  the  rest  of  the  way.  The  ruined  arch. 

and  Rollo  sat  down  to  rest  a  while,  after  they  had 
looked  out  from  the  pavilion  itself  as  long  as 
they  desired. 

"  I  believe  I'll  walk  up  the  rest  of  the  way," 
said  Rollo,  "  and  let  the  donkey  stay  where  he  is." 

"  Why,  don't  you  like  riding  on  the  donkey  ?  " 
asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  like  to  ride,  but  he  don't 
seem  to  like  to  carry  me  very  well.  Besides,  it  is 
not  far  now  to  the  top." 

The  path  immediately  above  the  pavilion  passed 
out  of  the  region  of  the  vineyards,  and  entered  a 
little  thicket  of  evergreen  trees,  through  which  it 
ascended  by  short  zigzags,  very  steep,  until  at 
length  it  came  out  upon  a  smooth,  grassy  mound, 
which  crowned  the  summit  of  the  elevation  ;  and 
here  suddenly  the  ruin  came  into  view.  It  was  a 
single  ruined  arch,  standing  alone  on  the  brink 
of  the  hill.  The  arch  was  evidently,  when  first 
built,  of  the  plainest  and  rudest  constructioD. 
The  stones  were  of  basalt,  which  is_  a  volcanic 
rock,  very  permanent  and  durable  in  character, 
and  as  hard  almost  as  iron.  The  mortar  between 
the  stones  had  crumbled  away  a  good  deal,  but 
the  stones  themselves  seemed  unchanged.  Mr. 
George  struck  his  cane  against  them,  and  they 
returned  a  ringing  sound,  as  if  they  had  been 
made  of  metal. 


Roland's    Tower.  103 

The  durability  of  arches.  The  knight  and  the  nun. 

Around  this  arch  were  the  remains  of  the  an- 
cient wall  of  the  building,  by  means  of  which  it 
was  easy  to  see  that  the  whole  edifice  must  have 
been  of  very  small  dimensions,  and  that  it  must 
have  been  originally  constructed  in  a  very  rude 
manner.  The  arch  seems  to  have  been  intended 
for  a  door  or  a  window.  Probably  they  took 
more  pains  with  the  construction  of  the  arch  than 
they  did  with  the  rest  of  the  edifice,  using  larger 
and  better  stones  for  it,  and  stronger  mortar ; 
and  this  may  be  the  reason  why  this  part  has 
stood  so  long,  while  the  rest  has  fallen  down  and 
gone  to  decay.  In  fact,  it  is  generally  found 
that  the  arches  of  ancient  edifices  are  the  parts 
of  the  masonry  which  are  the  last  to  fall. 

The  opening  in  the  arch  looked  down  the 
river.  Mr.  George  took  his  stand  upon  the  line 
of  the  wall  opposite  the  Island  of  Nonnenwerth, 
and  said  that  he  supposed  there  must  have  been 
another  window  there. 

"  Here  is  where  the  old  knight  must  have 
stood,"  said  he,  "  to  look  down  on  the  island, 
and  the  convent  where  his  lost  lady  was  im- 
prisoned." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  he  could  look  right  down 
upon  it  from  here.  I  wonder  whether  the  nun 
knew  that  he  was  up  here." 

"  Yes,"   said  Mr.  George,   "  there  is  not  the 


104         Eoli.o    on    the    Rhine, 


Coming  down.  r,.,;io  bathes  his  feet  in  the  river.  The  boats. 

least  doubt  that  she  did.  They  found  out  some 
way  to  have  an  understanding  together,  you  may 
depend." 

After  lingering  about  the  old  ruin  as  long  as 
they  wished,  our  travellers  came  down  the  hill 
again  as  they  went  up,  except  that  Rollo 
walked  all  the  way.  He  was  afraid  to  ride 
on  the  donkey  going  down,  for  fear  that  he 
should  fall. 

Rollo  went  down  to  the  river  side,  and  taking 
off  his  stockings  and  shoes,  bathed  his  feet  in  the 
stream.  While  he  was  there  a  great  boat  came 
by,  towed  by  two  horses  that  walked  along  the 
bank.  The  rope,  however,  by  which  the  horses 
drew  the  boat  was  fastened,  not  to  the  side  of 
the  boat,  as  is  common  with  us  on  canals,  but  to 
the  top  of  the  mast,  so  that  it  was  carried  high 
in  the  air,  and  it  passed  over  Rollo's  head  with- 
out disturbing  him  at  all.  They  always  have  the 
tow  ropes  fastened  to  the  top  of  the  mast  on  the 
jlhine,  because  the  banks  are  in  some  places  so 
high  that  a  rope  lying  low  would  not  draw. 

Rollo  remained  on  the  bank  of  the  river 
some  time,  and  then  he  put  on  his  shoes  and 
stockings  and  went  up  into  his  room.  He  found 
that  his  uncle  George  was  seated  at  the  table, 
with  pen,  ink,  and  paper  out.  and  was  busy 
vritino:  letters. 


Roland's    Tower.  105 

Mr.  George  gives  Rollo  some  employment 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "  what  diall  I  do 
now  ?  " 

"  Let  me  think,"  said  Mr.  George.  Then  after 
a  moment's  reflection,  he  added,  "  I  should  like 
to  have  you  take  a  sheet  of  paper,  and  draw  thia 
little  table  up  to  the  window,  and  take  your  seat 
there,  and  look  out,  and  whenever  you  see  any 
thing  remarkable,  write  down  what  it  is  on  the 
paper." 

"  What  shall  you  do  with  it  when  I  have  got 
it  done  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  I'll  tell  you  that  when  it  is  done,"  replied 
Mr.  George. 

"  But  perhaps  I  shall  not  see  any  thing  remark- 
able," said  Rollo. 

"  Then,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  you  will  not  have 
any  thing  to  write.  You  will  in  that  case  only 
sit  and  look  out  of  the  window." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  will  do  it.  But 
will  it  do  just  as  well  for  me  to  go  down  to  the 
terrace,  and  do  it  there  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "just  as  well." 

So  Rollo  took  out  his  portfolio  and  his  pocket 
pen  and  inkstand,  and  went  down  to  the  terrace, 
and  there  he  sat  for  nearly  two  hours  watching 
what  was  going  by,  and  making  out  his  catalogue 
of  the  remarkable  things.  At  the  end  of  about 
two  hours,  Mr.  George,  having  finished  his  letters 


1 06  II  0  L  L  0      ON     THE      RHINE. 

Hollo's  account  of  the  remarkable  things  he  saw  from  the  terraco. 

came  down  to  see  how  Rollo  was  getting  along. 
Rollo  showed  him  his  list,  and  Mr.  George  was 
quite  pleased  with  it.  In  the  course  of  the  evening 
Rollo  made  several  additions  to  it ;  and  when  at 
length  it  was  completed,  it  read  as  follows. 


Hollo's    List.  107 


Rollo  on  the  terrace  wrote  an  account  of  what  he  saw. 


Chapter    VII. 
Rollo's    List. 

Remarkable  Things  seen  from  the  Terrace  of  the 
Hotel  at  Rolandseck,  by  Rollo  H.,  Saturday  Even 
ing,  Jlugust  29. 

t.  An  elegant  steamer,  painted  green.  Her 
name  is  the  Schiller.     She  is  going  up  the  river. 

2.  Another  steamer,  the  Kcenig.  Ladies  and 
gentlemen  on  the  deck,  under  an  awning. 

3.  I  can  see  the  ruins  of  Drachenfels  with  my 
spy  glass,  and  the  inn  near  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain, painted  white.  I  have  been  trying  to  find 
the  path,  to  see  if  I  could  see  any  donkeys  going 
up  ;  but  I  cannot  find  it. 

4.  A  boat  with  some  men  and  women  in  it 
putting  off  from  the  landing  just  above  here. 
They  are  going  down  the  stream.  The  current 
carries  them  down  very  fast.  I  think  they  are 
going  over  to  the  island. 

No,  they  are  going  away  down  the  river. 

5.  A  great  steamer  coming  down,  with  Bags 
and  banners  flvins;. 


108  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  nuns  on  the  island.  The  procession  of  pilgrims. 

Now  she  has  gone  by,  only  I  can  see  the 
smoke  from  her  smoke  pipe  behind  the  point  of 
land. 

6.  The  nuns  are  taking  a  walk  under  the 
trees  on  the  island.  Some  of  the  girls  of  the 
school  are  going  with  them.  The  nuns  are 
dressed  in  black,  with  bonnets  partly  black  and 
partly  white.  The  girls  are  dressed  in  pink,  all 
alike.  They  are  laughing  and  frolicking  on  the 
grass,  as  they  go  along.  The  nuns  walk  along 
quietly.  The  girls  are  having  an  excellent  good 
time. 

They  are  walking  away  down  to  the  end  of 
the  island.  The  walk  that  they  are  going  in  is 
bordered  by  a  row  of  poplar  trees. 

7.  A  procession  of  pilgrims  going  up  to  Re- 
magen.  At  least,  the  waiter  says  they  are  pil- 
grims. They  are  in  two  rows,  one  on  each  side 
of  the  road,  so  that  there  is  room  for  the  car- 
riages to  pass  along  between  them.  They  are 
dressed  very  queerly,  like  peasants^  The  girls 
and  women  go  first,  and  the  men  come  afterwards. 
The  women  have  baskets,  with  something  to  eat 
in  them,  I  suppose.  The  men  have  nothing. 
There  is  one  man  at  the  head,  who  carries  a 
crucifix,  with  a  wreath  of  flowers  over  it,  on  the 
top  of  the  pole.  They  sing  as  they  go  along, 
and  keep  step  to  the  music.     First,  the  women 


Rollo's    List.  109 

The  dog- barrow.  The  students  on  the  steamer. 

sing  a  few  words,  and  then  the  men  sing  in  re- 
sponse.    It  is  a  very  strange  sight. 

8.  A  very  swift  steamer,  with  a  great  many 
gentlemen  and  ladies  on  board.  It  has  gone 
down  on  the  other  side  of  the  island. 

9.  I  hear  guns  firing  down  the  river. 

10.  A  man  is  going  by  with  a  very  long  and 
queer-shaped  wheelbarrow,  and  there  is  a  dog 
harnessed  to  it  before  to  draw,  while  he  pushes  it 
behind. 

11.  More  guns  firing  down  the  river.  A 
steamer  is  coming  into  view,  with  a  great  many 
flags  and  banners  flying.  The  guns  that  I  heard 
are  on  board  that  steamer. 

The  waiter  says  it  is  a  company  of  students, 
from  the  university  at  Bonn,  coming  up  on  a 
frolic. 

12.  The  steamer  with  the  students  is  going 
by.  There  is  a  band  of  music  on  board,  playing 
beautifully. 

13.  The  steamer  has  stopped  just  above  here, 
and  all  the  students  are  going  on  shore. 

14.  The  students  have  foimed  into  a  company 
on  the  beach,  and  they  are  marching  up,  with 
banners  flying  and  music  playing,  to  the  terrace 
of  a  hotel,  just  above  here. 

15.  The  steamer  has  gone  away  up  the  river, 
and  left  them.    There  are  five  or  six  f.mall  boats 


110  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Rollo  watches  the  boats  and  steamers  on  the  river. 

on  the  shore  at  the  landing,  with  boatmen  stand- 
ing by  them,  waiting  to  be  hired.  I  mean  to  ask 
uncle  George  to  let  me  go  and  take  a  sail  in  one 
of  them  on  Monday. 

16.  I  can  see  the  students  by  leaning  over  the 
parapet  and  looking  through  my  spy  glass.  They 
are  sitting  at  the  tables  under  the  trees  on  the 
terrace,  smoking  pipes  and  drinking  something. 
They  have  very  funny  looking  caps  on. 

17.  A  tow  boat  coming  up  the  river.  It  is 
drawn  by  two  horses,  that  walk  along  the  road. 
The  boat  has  a  roof  over  it  instead  of  a  deck, 
and  it  looks  like  a  floating  house  with  a  family 
in  it. 

18.  A  steamer  coming  up — the  Wilhelm. 
She  came  up  the  other  side  of  the  island. 

19.  A  small  boat  going  away  from  the  land- 
ing. It  is  rowed  by  one  man,  with  one  oar, 
which  he  works  near  the  bow  on  the  starboard 
side.  He  has  set  the  helm  hard  a-port,  and  tied 
it  there,  and  that  keeps  his  boat  from  being 
pulled  round.  I  never  thought  of  that  way  be- 
fore. 

There  is  a  woman  and  a  child  in  the  stern  of 
the  boat. 

20.  There  is  a  man  eating  his  supper  on  the 
pai*apet  below  me,  in  front  of  the  road.  A  girl 
las  brought  it  to  him  in  a  basket.     The  man 


Rollo's    List.  Ill 


The  raft  on  the  Rhinf>. 


seems  to  be  a  boatman,  and  I  think  the  girl  is  his 
daughter.  She  has  a  tin  tea  kettle  with  something 
to  drink  in  it,  and  she  pours  it  out  into  a  mug  as 
fast  as  the  man  wants  it  to  drink.  There  is  also 
some  bread,  which  she  breaks  and  gives  him  as  fast 
as  he  wants  it.  There  is  a  little  child  standing  by, 
and  the  man  stops  now  and  then  to  play  with  her. 
Now  there  is  another  man  that  has  come  and 
sat  down  by  the  side  of  him  ;  and  a  woman  has 
brought  him  his  supper  in  a  basket.  I  think  it  is 
his  wife. 

21.  A  long  raft  is  coming  down  the  river.  V 
is  very  long  indeed.  It  is  made  of  logs  and  boards 
There  are  twenty-two  men  on  it,  thirteen  at  the 
front  end,  and  nine  at  the  back  end.  They  have 
got  two  monstrous  great  oars  out ;  one  of  these 
oars  runs  out  at  the  front  end  of  the  raft,  and  the 
other  at  the  back  end,  and  the  men  are  rowing. 
There  are  six  men  taking  hold  of  each  of  these 
oars  and  working  them,  trying  to  row  the  raft 
more  into  the  middle  of  the  river. 

There  is  a  small  house  on  the  middle  of  the 
raft,  and  a  fire  in  a  large  flat  box  near  the  door 
of  it.  I  should  think  it  would  set  the  raft  on 
fire.  This  fire  is  for  cooking.  I  suppose,  for  there 
is  a  kettle  hanging  over  it. 

22.  Now  the  students  are  singing  a  song. 

23.  There   is    a    great   fleet   of  large   boata 


J 12         Rollo    OxV    the    Rhine. 

The  steamer  and  the  fleet  of  boats.  The  tipsy  student 

coming  up  the  river,  with  a  steamboat  at  the  head 
of  them.     They  come  very  slowly. 

24.  The  students  have  finished  their  drinking 
and  smoking,  and  are  beginning  to  come  out  into 
the  road.  They  are  walking  about  there  and 
frolicking. 

25.  The  great  fleet  of  boats  have  come  up  so 
that  I  can  see  them.  They  are  great  canal  boats, 
towed  by  a  steamer.  There  are  seven  of  them  in 
all.  The  steamer  has  hard  work  to  get  them  along 
against  the  current.  It  is  just  as  much  as  she 
can  do. 

26.  Four  of  the  students  are  getting  into  a 
small  boat.  One  of  them  has  a  flag.  Now  they 
are  putting  off  from  the  shore.  They  are  going 
out  to  take  a  sail.   . 

27.  The  fleet  of  boats  is  now  just  opposite  to 
the  window. 

28.  A  large  open  carriage,  with  a  family  in  it,  is 
riding  by.  There  is  a  trunk  on  behind  ;  so  I  sup- 
pose they  are  travellers,  going  to  see  the  Rhine. 

29.  Three  of  the  students  are  walking  by 
here.  One  of  them  —  the  middle  one  —  is  so 
tipsy  that  ha  cannit  walk  straight,  and  the  others 
are  taking  hold  ot  his  arms  and  holding  him  up. 
I  suppose  they  are  going  to  see  if  they  cannot 
walk  him  sober. 

They  have  gone  off  away  down  the  road. 


Rollo's    List.  113 

Tlio  carr.itge  and  outriders.  The  family  of  peasants. 

30.  Here  comes  an  elegant  carriage  and  two 
outriders.  The  outriders  are  dressed  in  a  sort 
of  uniform,  and  they  are  riding  on  horseback  a 
little  way  before  the  carriage.  They  go  very 
fast.  There  is  a  gentleman  and  a  lady  in  the 
carriage. 

Now  they  have  gone  by. 

31.  Several  parties  of  students  have  gone  by, 
to  take  a  walk  down  the  road.  Some  of  them 
are  walking  along  very  steadily,  but  there  are 
several  that  look  pretty  tipsy. 

Here  are  three  or  four  of  them  coming  back, 
riding  the  donkeys.  They  are  singing  and  laugh- 
ing, and  making  a  great  deal  of  fun. 

32.  Here  is  a  family  of  poor  peasants  coming 
down  the  river.  They  look  very  poor.  The 
woman  has  a  very  queer  cap  on.  She  has  one 
child  strapped  across  her  back,  and  she  is  leading 
another.  There  is  a  man  and  a  large  boy.  They 
have  packs  on  their  backs.  I  wonder  if  they 
are  not  emigrants  going  to  America. 

33.  One  of  the  students  has  got  hurt.  I  can 
see  him  down  the  road  limping.  There  are  two 
other  students  with  him,  helping  him. 

They  are   going   to   bring  him  home.     They 
have  taken  a  cane,  and  are  holding  it  across  be- 
tween them,  and  he  is  sitting  on  it  and  putting 
his  arms  about  their  necks.     Each  student  holds 
8 


114  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  students  carrying  a  lame  compan'on. 

one  end  of  the  cane,  and  so  they  are  bringing 
him  alono;. 


THE  STUDENTS. 


The  cane  has  broken,  and  let  the  lame  student 
fall  down. 

They  have  got  another  cane,  stronger,  and  no\» 
they  are  carrying  him  again. 


Rollo's    List.  115 

The  tow  boat  drawn  by  a  woman.      The  embarkation  of  the  students. 

Now  they  are  stopping  to  rest  right  opposite 
to  this  hov.-e.  They  have  changed  hands,  and 
are  now  carrying  him  again. 

34.  Here  is  a  woman  coming  along  up  the 
river  drawing  a  small  boat.  She  has  a  band  ever 
her  shoulders,  and  a  long  line  attached  to  it,  and 
the  other  end  of  the  line  is  fastened  to  the  mast 
of  the  small  boat.  There  is  a  man  in  the  boat 
steering.  I  think  the  man  ought  to  come  to  the 
shore  and  draw,  and  let  the  woman  stay  in  the 
boat  and  steer,  for  it  seems  very  hard  work  to 
pull  the  boat  along. 

35.  A  boat  with  two  women  in  it,  and  a  man 
to  row,  is  going  across  the  river  to  the  Nuns' 
Island.  Now  they  are  landing.  The  women  are 
walking  up  towards  the  nunnery,  under  the  trees, 
and  the  man  is  fastening  his  boat. 

36.  The  students  are  gathering  on  the  land- 
ing. I  think  that,  perhaps,  they  are  going  back 
to  Bonn  in  small  boats.  It  is  beginning  to  be 
dark,  and  time  for  them  to  go  home.*  Yes,  they 
are  crowding  into  two  or  three  boats.  The 
boats  are  getting  very  full.  If  they  are  not  care- 
ful they  will  upset. 

The   boats   are   pushing   off  from   the   shore. 

*  This  Rollo  wrote  in  the  latter  part  of  the  evening,  in  i  u 
room. 


116  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E . 

The  bolls  of  Bonn.  The  sick  students  in  the  carriage. 

There  are  three  boats,  with  two  flags  flying  in 
each.  They  are  drifting  out  into  the  current. 
The  students  have  got  one  or  two  oars  out,  but 
they  are  not  rowing  much.  The  current  carries 
them  down  fast  enough  without  rowing. 

37.  I  can  hear  the  bells  ringing  or  tolling, 
away  down  the  river,  the  air  is  so  still.  I  think 
it  must  be  the  bells  of  Bonn. 

38.  The  students'  boats  are  all  drifting  down 
just  opposite  our  windows.  They  are  going  side- 
wise,  and  backwards,  and  every  way,  and  are  all 
entangled  together.  The  students  on  board  are 
calling  out  to  one  another,  and  laughing,  and 
having  a  great  time.  Some  of  them  are  trying 
to  sing,  but  the  rest  will  not  listen.  If  they  are 
not  very  careful  they  will  upset  some  of  those 
boats  before  they  get  to  Bonn. 

39.  Here  comes  a  carriage  driving  slowly 
down  the  road,  with  four  students  in  it.  Two  of 
them  are  hanging  down  their  heads  and  holding 
them  with  their  hands,  as  if  they  had  dreadful 
headaches.  They  look  very  sick.  The  other 
two  students  seem  pretty  well.  I  suppose  they 
are  going  in  the  carriage  with  the  sick  ones  to 
take  care  of  them. 

It  is  getting  too  dark  for  me  to  see  any  more 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     117 

Hollo  and  his  uncle  in  the  bower.  Sabbath  readings. 


Chapter    VIII. 
A   Sabbath    on    the   Rhine. 

About  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning,  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  went  up  among  the  gardens 
behind  the  hotel,  and  after  ascending  for  some 
time,  they  came  at  length  to  a  seat  in  a  bower 
which  commanded  a  very  fine  view,  and  here  they 
sat  down. 

Mr.  George  took  a  small  Bible  out  of  his 
pocket,  and  opened  it  at  the  book  of  the  Acts, 
and  began  to  read.  He  continued  to  read  for 
half  an  hour  or  more,  and  to  explain  to  Rollo 
what  he  read  about.  Rollo  was  very  much  in- 
terested in  the  stories  of  what  the  apostles  did  in 
their  first  efforts  for  planting  Christianity,  and  of 
the  toils  and  dangers  which  they  encountered, 
and  the  sufferings  which  they  endured. 

At  length,  after  finishing  the  reading,  Mr. 
George  proposed  that  they  should  go  down  to 
breakfast. 

So  they  went  down  the  winding  walks  again 
which  led  to  the  inn.     There  they  found,  on  the 


118         Hollo    on    the    Rhine. 

The  order  for  breakfast.  The  German  talking  English. 

front  side  of  the  house,  a  very  pleasant  dining 
room,  with  tables  set  in  it,  some  large  and  some 
small.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  took  their  seats 
at  a  small  front  table  near  a  window,  where 
they  could  look  out  over  the  water.  Here  a 
waiter  came  to  them,  and  they  told  him  what  they 
would  have  for  breakfast. 

"  I  will  have  a  beefsteak,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  and  my  nephew  will  have  an  omelet.  We 
should  like  some  fried  potatoes  too,  and  some 
coffee." 

" Ja*  monsieur,"  said  the  waiter.  "  Let  us 
see.  You  will  have  one  bifstek,  one  omelet,  two 
fried  potatoes,  and  two  caffys." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Varry  well,"  said  the  waiter.  "  It  shall  be 
ready  in  fiveteen  minutes." 

So  the  waiter  went  away. 

"  We  shall  want  more  than  two  fried  potatoes," 
said  Rollo,  looking  very  serious. 

"  0,  he  means  two  portions,"  replied  Mr. 
George  ;  "  that  is  to  say,  enough  for  two  people. 
He  will  bring  us  plenty,  you  may  depend." 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  sat  by  the  window  in 
the  dining  room  until  the  breakfast  was  brought 
in.     Besides  the  things  which  they  had  called  for, 

*  Pronounced  vfl. 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     11? 

Breakfasts  on  the  Rhine.  The  churches. 

the  waiter  brought  them  some  rolls  of  very  nice 
and  tender  bread,  and  some  delicious  butter.  He 
also  brought  a  large  plate  full  of  fried  potatoes, 
and  the  beefsteak  which  came  for  Mr.  George 
was  very  juicy  and  rich.  The  omelet  which 
Rollo  had  chosen  for  his  principal  dish  was  ex- 
cellent too.  He  made  an  exchange  with  Mr. 
George,  giving  him  a  piece  of  his  omelet,  and 
taking  a  part  of  the  steak.  Thus  they  ate  their 
breakfast  very  happily  together,  looking  out  the 
window  from  time  to  time  to  see  the  steamboats 
and  the  carriages  go  by,  and  to  view  the  mag- 
nificent scenery  of  the  opposite  shores. 

"I'll  tell  you  what  it  is,  Rollo,"  said  Mr. 
George  ;  "  people  may  say  what  they  please  about 
the  castles  and  the  ruins  on  the  Rhine  —  I  think 
that  the  inns  and  breakfasts  on  the  Rhine  are 
by  no  means  to  be  despised." 

"  I  think  so  too,"  said  Rollo. 

When  they  had  nearly  finished  their  breakfast, 
Mr.  George  asked  the  waiter  what  churches  there 
were  in  the  neighborhood.  The  waiter  said  there 
was  a  church  on  the  Island  of  Nonnenwerth,  be- 
longing to  the  convent,  and  that  there-was  another 
'ip  the  river  a  few  miles,  at  the  village  of  Remagen. 

"  We  might  go  over  to  the  island  this  morning, 
and  up  to  Remagen  this  afternoon,"  said  Mr; 
George,  "  ODly  you  are  too  lame  to  walk  so  far.' 


120  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  church  at  the  convent  on  the  Island  of  Nonnenwerth. 

"  No,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  decidedly  ;  "  my  feet 
are  well  to-day.     I  can  walk  as  well  as  not." 

A  few  minutes  after  this,  the  waiter  came  to 
tell  Mr.  George  that  the  master  of  the  hotel  was 
himself  going  over  to  the  convent  to  attend 
church,  and  that  he  and  Rollo  could  go  in  the 
same  boat  if  they  pleased.  The  boat  would  go 
at  about  a  quarter  before  ten. 

Mr.  George  said  that  he  should  like  this  arrange- 
ment very  much  ;  and  accordingly,  at  the  appointed 
time,  he  and  Rollo  set  out  from  the  inn  in  com- 
pany with  the  landlord.  They  walked  along  the 
road  a  short  distance,  and  then  went  down  a 
flight  of  steps  that  led  to  the  landing.  Here 
there  was  a  number  of  boats  drawn  up  upon  the 
beach.  One  of  them  had  a  boatman  in  attend- 
ance upon  it,  waiting  for  the  company  that  he 
was  to  take  over  to  the  island. 

Besides  the  landlord  and  his  two  guests,  there 
were  two  or  three  girls  waiting  on  the  beach, 
who  seemed  to  be  going  over  too.  All  these  peo- 
ple got  into  the  boat,  and  then  the  boatman,  af- 
ter embarking  himself,  pushed  it  off  from  the 
shore, 

It  was  a  very  pleasant  summer  morning,  and 
Rollo  had  a  delightful  sail  in  going  over  to  the 
island.  Mr.  George  and  the  landlord  talked  to- 
gether nearly  all  the  way  ;  but  Rollo  did  not 


A    Sabbath    ox    the    Rhine.     122 

Sailing  over  to  the  island.  Landing 

listen  much  to  their  conversation,  as  he  could  no; 
understand  the  landlord  very  well,  notwithstand- 
ing that  the  language  which  he  used  was  Eng- 
lish. He  was  seated  next  to  the  girls  ;  but  he  did 
not  speak  to  them,  as  he  felt  sure  that  they  did 
not  know  any  language  but  German.  So  he 
amused  himself  with  looking  at  the  hills  on  the 
shore,  and  at  the  gardens  and  vineyards  which 
adorned  them,  and  in  tracing  out  the  zigzag  paths 
which  led  up  to  the  arbors  and  summer  houses, 
and  to  the  ancient  ruins.  He  attempted  at  one 
time  to  look  down  into  the  water  by  the  side 
of  the  boat,  to  see  if  he  could  see  any  fishes  ; 
but  the  water  of  the  Rhine  is  very  turbid,  and 
he  could  not  see  down  into  it  at  all. 

At  length  the  boat  came  to  the  land  in  a  little 
cove  on  the  side  of  the  island,  where  there  was  a 
sandy  beach,  under  the  shade  of  some  ancient 
trees.  There  was  a  path  leading  from  this  place 
up  towards  the  convent.  The  party  in  the  boat 
landed,  and  began  to  walk  up  this  path.  Mr. 
George  and  the  landlord  were  first,  and  Rollo 
same  next. 

The  little  path  that  they  were  walking  in  came 
out  into  another  which  led  along  among  the 
fields  that  extended  down  the  island.  There  was 
a  nun  coming  up  this  path,  leading  one  of  the 
schoolgirls.     It  seems    they  had  been  to  take  p 


122  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  nun  and  the  schoolgiil. 

walk.     The  nun  had  her  face  shaded  by  a  large 
cap,  or  bonnet,  with  a  veil  over  it ;  and  though 


THE   NUN. 


she  looked  pale,  her  countenance  had  a  very  gen 
tie   expression,   and   was  very  beautiful.      She 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     123 

Rollo's  curiosity  about  the  nun.  The  chapel. 

bowed  to  the  party  that  was  coming  up  from  the 
boat,  and  went  on  before  them  to  the  church. 

"  I  wonder  whether  she  is  happy,"  thought 
Rollo  to  himself,  "  in  living  on  this  island,  a  nun. 
I  wish  I  knew  where  her  father  and  mother  live, 
and  how  she  came  to  be  here,  such  a  beautiful 
young  lady." 

This  nun  was  indeed  very  beautiful,  though 
she  was  an  exception  to  the  general  rule,  for  nuns 
are  often  very  plain. 

The  church  formed  a  part  of  the  convent  build- 
ing. It  was,  in  fact,  only  a  small  chapel,  built  in 
a  wing  of  the  convent,  with  a  little  cupola  and  a 
bell  over  it.  The  bell  was  ringing  when  the 
party  from  the  boat  went  up  towards  the  edifice. 
On  entering  Rollo  found  that  the  room  was  very 
small.  At  the  upper  end  was  a  platform,  with 
an  altar  and  a  crucifix  at  the  farther  end  of  it. 
The  altar  had  very  tall  can  lies  upon  it,  and  sev- 
eral bouquets  of  flowers.  The  candles  were 
lighted. 

Below  the  platform,  in  the  place  where  the 
congregation  would  usually  be,  there  were  two 
rows  of  seats,  like  pews,  with  small  benches  be- 
fore each  seat  to  kneel  upon,  and  also  a  support 
to  lean  upon  in  time  of  prayer.  These  seats 
were  very  few,  and  there  were  but  few  people 
sitting  on  them.     The  people   that  were   there 


124         Hollo    on    the    Rhine. 

The  service  in  the  chapel. 

seemed  to  be  the  servants  of  the  convent.  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo,  and  the  people  that  came  with 
them,  were  the  only  strangers.  Rollo  looked 
around  for  the  nuns  and  for  the  girls  of  the 
school,  but  they  were  nowhere  to  be  seen. 

As  soon  as  Rollo  had  taken  his  seat,  he  ob- 
served that,  though  there  was  no  minister  or 
priest  at  the  altar,  the  service  was  going  on. 
He  could  hear  a  female  voice,  which  appeared  to 
issue  from  some  place  in  a  gallery  behind  him, 
out  of  view,  reading  what  seemed  to  be  verses. 
from  the  Bible,  in  a  very  sweet  and  plaintive 
tone,  and  at  the  close  of  each  verse  all  the  peo- 
ple in  the  congregation  below  would  say  some- 
thing in  a  responding  voice  together. 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  that  is  one  of  the  nuns  ?  " 
whispered  Rollo  to  his  uncle. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  probably  it  is." 

"  This  is  a  Catholic  church,  is  it  not?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  almost  all  the 
churches  on  the  Rhine  are  Catholic  churches  j 
and  nunneries  are  always  Catholic." 

Rollo  said  no  more,  but  attended  to  the  ser 
■vice. 

There  was  nothing  that  was  said  or  done  that 
Rollo  could  at  all  understand  ;  and  yet  the  scene 
itself  was    invested   with    a    certain   solemnity 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     125 


Mr.  George  and  Ro  lo  returned  to  the  hotel. 


which  produced  a  strong  and  quite  salutary  im- 
pression on  his  mind.  By  and  by  a  priest,  dressed 
in  his  pontifical  robes,  came  in  by  a  side  door, 
and  taking  his  place  before  the  altar,  with  an 
attendant  kneeling  behind  him,  or  by  his  side, 
went  through  a  great  number  of  ceremonies,  of 
which  Rollo  understood  nothing  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Mr.  George,  however,  explained 
the  general  nature  of  the  performance  to  him  that 
afternoon  when  they  were  walking  up  the  river 
to  Remagen,  in  a  conversation  which  I  shall  re- 
late in  due  time. 

The  service  was  concluded  in  about  an  hour, 
and  then  the  congregation  was  dismissed.  All 
but  the  party  that  came  in  the  boat  went  out  by 
a  side  door  which  led  into  the  other  apartments 
of  the  convent.  The  boat  party  went  down  to 
the  shore,  and  getting  into  the  boat  were  rowed 
back  across  the  water. 

After  dinner,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  set  out  to 
walk  up  the  river  to  Remagen,  in  order  to  attend 
church  there.  It  was  during  this  walk  that  they 
had  the  conversation  I  have  referred  to  on  tho 
subject  of  the  service  which  they  had  witnessed 
in  the  little  chapel  at  the  nunnery. 

"  You  must  understand,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  that  the  nature  and  design  of  the  ceremonies  of 
public  worship  in  a  Protestant  and  in  a  Catholic 


126  R  0  L  I,  0     ON     THE     RUINE. 

Mr.  George's  explanation  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  worship. 

church  are  essentially  and  totally  distinct.  The 
Protestants  meet  to  offer  up  their  common  prayers 
and  supplications  to  God,  and  to  listen  to  the 
instructions  which  the  minister  gives  them  in 
respect  to  their  duties.  The  Catholics,  on  the 
other  hand,  meet  to  have  a  sacrifice  performed,  as 
an  atonement  for  their  sins.  The  Protestants 
think  that  all  the  atonement  which  is  necessary 
for  the  siitS  of  the  whole  world  has  already 
been  made  by  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ. 
The  CathoLcs  think  that  a  new  sacrifice  must  be 
made  for  th«'.m  from  time  to  time  by  the  priest  ; 
and  they  come  together  to  kneel  before  the  altar 
while  he  makes  it,  in  order  that  they  may  have 
a  share  in  the  benefits  of  it.  Thus  the  Prot- 
estant comes  to  church  to  hear  something  said  ; 
the  Catholic  to  witness  something  done.  This 
is  one  reason,  in  fact,  why  the  Catholic  churches 
may  very  properly  be  enormously  large.  The 
people  who  assemble  in  them  do  not  come  to 
hear,  so  much  as  to  see,  or  rather  "to  be  present 
and  know  what  is  goi:ig  on,  and  to  take  part  in 
it  in  heart. 

"  The  great  thing  that  is  done,"  continued  Mr. 
George,  "  is  the  receiving  of  the  communion,  thai 
is.  of  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  Lord's  supper, 
which  they  suppose  is  renewing  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  present 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     127 

The  sacrament  of  communion. 

at  the  ceremony.  Did  you  see  the  man  who  was 
kneeling  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  of  the  altar 
while  the  priest  was  performing,  and  who  brought 
two  little  silver  vessels',  out  of  which  he  poured 
something  into  the  priest's  cup  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  The  silver  vessels  were 
on  a  little  shelf  at  first,  at  the  side  of  the  altar, 
and  he  went  at  the  proper  time  and  kneeled 
with  them  by  the  side  of  the  priest,  until  the 
priest  was  ready  to  take  them." 

"  One  of  these  vessels,"  continued  Mr.  George, 
"  contained  wine,  the  other  water.  When  the 
priest  held  his  large  silver  cup  out  to  him,  the 
man  poured  some  of  the  wine  into  it." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  And  I  saw  the  priest 
wiping  out  the  cup  very  carefully,  with  a  large 
white  napkin,  before  he  held  it  out  for  the 
wine." 

"  True,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  When  he  took 
the  wine  in  his  cup,  it  was  common  wine,  in  its 
natural  state ;  but  afterwards,  by  being  conse- 
crated to  the  service  of  the  mass,  it  was  changed, 
they  all  believe,  into  the  blood  of  Christ.  If 
looked,  they  knew,  just  as  it  did  before  ;  but 
though  it  thus  still  retained  all  the  appearance 
of  wine,  they  believe  that  it  became  really  and 
truly  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  that  the  priest  in 
drinking   it   would   make  a   sacrifice  of   Christ 


128  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  Catholic  service. 

anew  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  those  who 
should  witness  and  join  in  the  ceremony. 

"  In  the  same  manner  a  small  round  piece  of 
bread,  shaped  like  a  large  wafer,  when  conse- 
crated by  the  priest's  prayers,  becomes,  they 
think,  really  and  truly  the  body  of  Christ ;  and 
the  priest  by  eating  it  performs  a  sacrifice,  just  as 
he  does  by  drinking  the  wine.  When  he  has 
consecrated  this  wafer,  he  holds  it  up  for  a  mo- 
ment, that  the  people  may  look  upon  it ;  and  they, 
in  looking  upon  it,  think  they  see  a  portion  of  the 
true  body  of  Christ,  which  is  about  to  be  offered 
up  by  the  priest  as  a  sacrifice  for  their  sins." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  remember  when  he 
held  up  the  wafer.  I  did  not  know  what  it 
was." 

"  Did  you  not  see  that  all  the  people  bowed 
their  heads  just  then,"  rejoined  Mr.  George, 
"  and  said  something  to  themselves  in  a  very 
reverent  manner." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  but  I  did  not  understand 
what  it  meant." 

"  Thus  you  see,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  that 
the  essential  thing  at  a  Catholic  service  like  this, 
as  they  regard  it,  is  the  eating  of  the  body  and 
the  drinking  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  a 
new  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  people  who  are 
present  and  consenting  in  heart  to  the  ceremony. 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     129 

The  subordinate  ceremonies. 


There  aie  a  great  many  subordinate  operations 
and  rites.  The  assistant  goes  back  and  forth  a 
great  many  times  from  one  side  of  the  altar  to 
the  other,  stopping  to  bow  and  kneel  every  time 
he  passes  the  crucifix.  The  priest  makes  a  great 
doal  of  ceremony  of  wiping  out  the  cup  before 
he  receives  the  wine.  Then  there  is  a  long  ser- 
vice, which  he  reads  in  a  low  voice,  and  there  are 
many  prayers  which  he  offers,  and  he  turns  to 
various  passages  of  the  Scriptures,  and  reads  por- 
tions here  and  there.  The  people  do  not  hear 
any  thing  that  he  says  and  does,  nor  is  it  neces- 
sary, according  to  their  ideas  of  the  service,  that 
they  should  do  so  ;  for  they  know  very  well  that 
the  priest  is  consecrating  the  bread  or  the  wine, 
and  changing  it  into  the  body  and  the  blood  of 
Christ,  in  order  that  it  may  be  ready  for  the  sac- 
rifice. Then,  when  the  wine  is  changed,  the  priest 
drinks  it  in  a  very  solemn  manner,  raising  it  to 
his  lips  three  several  times,  so  as  to  take  it  in 
three  portions.  Then  he  holds  the  cup  out  to  his 
assistant  again,  who  pours  a  little  water  into  it 
from  his  other  vessel ;  and  the  priest  then,  after 
moving  the  cup  round  and  round,  to  be  sure  that 
the  water  mixes  itself  well  with  the  wine  which 
was  left  on  the  inner  service  of  the  cup,  drinks 
that  too.  He  does  this  in  order  to  make  sure 
that  no  portion  of  the  precious  blood  remains  in 
9 


130  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  conclusion  of  the  service.    The  people  come  not  to  hear,  but  to  se». 

the  cup.  He  then  wipes  it  out  carefully  with  hia 
napkin,  and  puts  it  away." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  saw  all  those  thing:?. 
And  after  he  had  got  through,  he  covered  the  cup 
with  a  cloth,  embroidered  with  gold,  and  carried 
it  away." 

"  And  after  that,"  continued  Rollo,  "  the  as- 
sistant, with  an  extinguisher  on  the  top  of  a  tall 
pole,  put  out  the  candles,  and  then  he  went 
away." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  and  so  the  service 
was  concluded. 

"  Thus  you  see,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  that 
for  all  that  the  people  come  for,  to  such  a  service 
as  that,  it  was  not  necessary  that  they  should 
hear  at  all.  There  was  not  any  thing  to' be  said 
to  them.  There  was  only  something  to  be  done 
for  them  ;  and  so  long  as  it  was  done,  and  done 
properly,  they  standing  by  and  consenting,  it 
was  not  of  much  consequence  whether  they  could 
see  and  hear  or  not.  So  the  priest  turned  his 
face  away  from  them  towards  the  altar  ;  and  when 
lie  had  any  thing  to  say,  he  spoke  the  words  in  a 
very  low  and  inaudible  voice." 

"  It  is  impossible,"  said  Rollo,  after  a  short 
pause,  "  that  the  wine  should  become  blood,  and 
the  wafer  flesh,  while  they  yet  look  just  as  they 
did  before." 


A    Sabbath    on    the    Rhine.     133 

Believing  strange  and  impossible  things. 

''  True."  said  Mr.  George,  "  it  seems  impossible 
to  us,  who  hear  of  it  for  the  first  time,  after  we 
have  grown  up  to  years  of  discretion  ;  but  that 
does  not  prevent  its  being  honestly  believed  by 
people  that  have  been  taught  to  consider  it  true 
from  their  earliest  infancy." 

"  Do  you  suppose  the  priests  themselves  believe 
it  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  a  great  many  of 
them  undoubtedly  do.  We  find,  it  is  true,  every 
where,  that  the  most  intelligent  and  well  edu- 
cated men  will  continue,  all  their  lives,  to  believe 
very  strange  things,  provided  they  were  taught 
to  believe  them  when  they  were  very  young  ; 
and  provided,  also,  that  their  worldly  interests 
are  in  any  way  concerned  in  their  continuing  to 
believe  them." 

Just  at  this  time,  Rollo's  attention  was  at- 
tracted to  what  seemed  to  be  an  encampment  on 
the  roadside  at  a  little  distance  before  them.  It 
was  a  family  of  emigrants  that  were  going  down 
the  river,  and  had  stopped  to  rest.  The  horses 
had  been  unharnessed,  and  were  eating,  and  the 
wagon  was  surrounded  with  a  family  consisting 
of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  were  sitting 
on  the  bank  taking  their  suppers.  Rollo  wished 
very  much  that  he  understood  German,  so  as  to 
go  and  talk  witli  them.     But  he  did  not,  and  so 


134 


ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE 


Outen  abend —  good  evening. 


he  contented  himself  with  wishing  them  guten 
abend,  which  means  good  evening,  as  he  went  by. 
He  went  on  after  this,  without  any  farther  ad- 
venture, to  the  village,  and  after  attending  church 
there,  he  returned  with  his  uncle  down  along  the 
hank  of  the  river  to  the  hotel. 


—"«£*=&>  iS* 


EHRENBREITSTEIN.  135 


Some  of  the  old  castles  on  the  Rhine  are  kept  in  repair. 


Chapter    IX. 
Ehrenbreitstein. 

The  people  of  the  Rhine  have  not  allowed  all 
the  old  castles  to  go  to  ruin.  Some  have  been 
carefully  preserved  from  age  to  age,  and  never 
allowed  to  go  out  of  repair.  Others  that  had 
gone  to  decay,  or  had  been  destroyed  in  the 
wars,  have  been  repaired  and  rebuilt  in  modern 
times,  and  are  now  in  better  condition  thar 
ever. 

Some  of  the  strongholds  that  have  thus  been 
restored  are  now  great  fortresses,  held  by  the 
governors  of  the  states  and  kingdoms  that  border 
on  the  river  ;  others  of  them  are  fitted  up  as  sum- 
mer residences  for  the  persons,  whether  princes 
or  private  people,  that  happen  to  own  them. 
About  midway  between  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  the  mountainous  region  of  the  Rhine  is  a 
place  where  there  are  two  very  important  works 
of  this  kind.  One  of  them  is  far  the  largest  and 
most  important  of  all  on  the  river.  This  is  the 
Castle  of  Ehrenbreitstein.    Ehrenbreitstein  is  not 


136         Hollo    on    the    Rhine. 

The  fortifications  of  Ehronbreitstein.  Origin  of  the  name  Coblenz. 

only  a  very  strong  and  important  fortification, 
but  it  guards  a  very  important  point. 

This  point  is  the  place  where  the  River  Moselle, 
one  of  the  principal  branches  of  the  Rhine,  comes 
in.  The  valley  of  the  Moselle  is  a  very  rich  and 
fertile  one,  and  in  proportion  to  its  extent  is  al- 
most as  valuable  as  that  of  the  Rhine.  The 
junction  of  the  two  rivers  is  the  place  for  de- 
fending both  of  these  valleys,  and  has  conse- 
quently, in  all  ages  of  the  world,  been  a  very 
important  post.  The  Romans  built  a  town  here, 
in  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  the  town  has 
continued  to  the  present  day.  It  is  called 
Coblenz.  The  Romans  named  it  originally 
Confluentes,  which  means  the  confluence  ;  and  this 
name,  in  the  course  of  ages,  has  gradually  be- 
come changed  to  Coblenz. 

Coblenz  is  built  on  a  three-cornered  piece  of 
flat  land,  exactly  on  the  point  where  the  two 
rivers  come  together.  There  is  a  bridge  over  the 
mouth  of  the  Moselle  where  it  comes  into  the 
Rhine,  and  another  over  the  Rhine  itself.  The 
bridge  over  the  Moselle  is  of  stone,  and  was 
built  a  great  many  hundred  years  ago.  That 
over  the  Rhine  is  what  is  called  a  bridge  of  boats. 

A  row  of  large  and  solid  boats  is  anchored  in 
the  river,  side  by  side,  with  their  heads  up  the 
stream,  and  then  the  bridge  is  made  by  a  plat 


E  HRENBREITSTEIN  .  137 

The  bridge  of  boats  across  the  Rhine. 

form  which  extends  across  from  boat  to  boat, 
across  the  whole  breadth  of  the  stream. 

Near  the  Coblenz  side  of  the  bridge  there  are 
two  or  three  lengths  of  it  which  can  be  taken 
out  when  necessary,  in  order  to  let  the  steamers, 
or  rafts,  or  tow  boats,  that  may  be  coming  up  or 
down  the  river,  pass  through.  Rollo  was  very 
much  interested,  while  he  remained  at  Coblenz, 
in  looking  out  from  the  windows  of  his  hotel, 
which  faced  the  river,  and  seeing  them  open  this 
bridge,  to  let  the  steamers  and  vessels  pass 
through.  A  length  of  the  bridge,  consisting 
sometimes  of  two  boats  with  the  platform  over  it, 
and  sometimes  of  three,  would  separate  from  the 
others,  and  float  down  the  stream  until  it  cleared 
itself  from  the  rest  of  the  bridge,  and  then  would 
move  by  some  mysterious  means  to  one  side,  and 
so  make  an  opening.  Then,  when  the  steamer, 
or  whatever  else  it  was,  had  passed  through,  the 
detached  portion  of  the  bridge  would  come  back 
again  slowly  and  carefully  to  its  place. 

Of  course  all  the  travel  on  the  bridge  would 
be  interrupted  during  this  operation  ;  but  as  soon 
as  the  connection  was  again  restored,  the  streams 
of  people  would  immediately  begin  to  move  again 
over  the  bridge,  as  before. 

Across  the  bridge,  on  the  heights  upon  the 
other  side,  Rollo  could  see  the  great  Castle  of 


138  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  castle.  The  Prussian -uniform.  The  fortifications. 

Ehrenbreitstein,  together  with  an  innumerable 
multitude  of  walls,  parapets,  bastions,  towers, 
battlements,  and  other  constructions  pertaining 
to  such  a  work. 

One  day  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  over  to 
see  this  fortress.  They  were  stopped  a  few  min- 
utes at  the  bridge,  by  a  steamer  going  through. 
There  was  a  large  company  of  soldiers  stopped 
too,  part  of  the  garrison  of  Ehrenbreitstein  that 
had  been  over  to  attend  a  parade  on  the  public 
square  at  Coblenz,  and  were  now  going  home, 
so  that  Rollo  was  not  sorry  for  the  detention, 
as  it  gave  him  a  fine  opportunity  to  see  the 
soldiers,  and  to  examine  the  Prussian  uniform. 
It  consisted  of  a  blue  frock  coat  and  white  trou- 
sers, with  an  elegant  brass-mounted  helmet  for  a 
cap. 

The  way  up  to  the  castle  was  by  a  long  and 
winding  road,  built  up  artificially  on  arches  of 
solid  masonry.  This  road  was  every  where  over- 
looked by  walls,  with  portholes  and  embrasures 
for  cannon,  and  all  along  it,  at  short  distances, 
were  immense  gateways  exceedingly  massive  and 
strong,  which  could  all  be  shut  in  time  of  siege. 
When  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  reached  the  top  of 
the  castle,  they  found  a  great  esplanade  there, 
surrounded  with  buildings  for  barracks,  and  foi 
the  storing  of  arms  and  provisions.     The  vie^v 


Ehrenbreitstein.  139 


Rollo  and  Mr.  George  at  the  barracks. 


from  this  esplanade  was  magnificent  beyond  de- 
scription. You  could  see  far  up  and  down  the 
River  Rhine,  and  far  up  the  Moselle,  while  all 
Coblenz,  and  the  two  bridges,  and  the  town  be- 
low the  castle,  and  three  other  immense  forts  that 
stood  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  were  directly 
beneath. 

Rollo  went  into  some  of  the  barracks,  and  also 
up  to  the  top  of  the  buildings.  The  buildings 
were  all  arched  over  above,  and  covered  with 
earth  ten  feet  deep,  with  grass  growing  on  the 
top.  The  men  were  mowing  this  grass  when 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  there.  The  object 
of  this  earth  on  the  roofs  of  the  buildings  is  to 
prevent  the  bombshells  of  the  enemy  from  break- 
ing down  through  the  roofs  and  killing  the  men. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  that  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  visited  Ehrenbreitstein,  they 
went  up  the  river  a  few  miles  in  a  boat  to  see  a 
smaller  castle,  which  has  been  repaired  and 
changed  into  a  private  residence.  The  name  of 
it  is  Stoltzenfels.  They  rode  up  the  mountain 
that  this  castle  was  built  upon  on  donkeys. 
The  road  was  very  good,  but  the  place  was  so 
Bteep  that  it  was  necessary  to  make  it  twist  and 
turn,  in  winding  its  way  up,  in  the  most  extraor- 
dinary manner.  In  one  place  it  actually  went 
over  itself  by  an  arched  bridge  thrown  across 


140  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E  . 

The  tistle.  Its  rooms.  Tlie  visitors'  slippers. 

the  ravine.  In  fact,  this  path  was  just  like  a 
corkscrew. 

Rollo  was  exceedingly  delighted  with  the  cas- 
tle of  Stoltzenfelo.  A  man  who  was  there  con- 
ducted him  and  his  uncle,  together  with  a  small 
company  of  other  visitors  who  arrived  at  the 
same  time,  all  over  it.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  describe  it,  there  were  so  many  curious  courts, 
and  towers,  and  winding  passage  ways,  and  little 
gardens,  and  terraces,  all  built  in  a  sort  of  nest 
among  the  rocks,  of  the  most  irregular  and 
wildest  character. 

The  rooms  were  all  beautifully  finished  and 
furnished,  and  they  were  full  of  old  relics  of 
feudal  times.  The  floors  were  of  polished  oak 
and  the  visitors,  when  walking  over  them,  wore 
over  their  boots  and  shoes  great  slippers  made  of 
felt,  which  were  provided  there  for  the  purpose 


Rollo's    Letter.  141 

Rollo  writes  a  letter  to  his  cousin  Jenny.  St.  Goar. 


Chapter    X. 

Rollo's    Letter. 

At  one  place  where  Mr.  George  and  Rolhj 
stopped  to  spend  a  night,  Rollo  wrote  a  letter  to 
Jenny.     It  was  as  follows  :  — 

St.  Goar  on  the  Rhine.  ) 
Friday  Evening.  } 

Dear  Jenny  :  We  have  got  into  a  very 
lonely  place.  I  did  not  know  there  was  such  a 
lonely  place  on  the  Rhine.  The  name  of  it  is 
St.  Goar  ;  but  they  pronounce  it  St.  Gwar.  The 
river  is  shut  in  closely  by  the  mountains  on  both 
sides,  and  also  above  and  below  ;  so  that  it  seems 
as  if  we  were  in  a  very  deep  valley,  with  a  pond 
of  water  in  the  bottom  of  it. 

Away  across  the  river  is  a  long  row  of  white 
houses,  crowded  in  between  the  edge  of  the  water 
and  the  mountain.  On  the  mountain  above  is  an 
old  ruined  castle,  called  the  Cat.  There  is  another 
old  ruin  a  few  miles  below,  called  the  Mouse.  J 
can  see  both  of  these  ruins  from  my  windows. 


142  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  queer  little  town.  The  church.  Waiting  tor  the  keys. 

There  is  a  little  town  on  this  side  of  the  vil- 
lage too.  "We  went  out  this  morning  to  see  it. 
It  is  very  small,  and  the  streets  are  very  narrow. 
We  came  to  the  queerest  old  church  you  ever 
saw.  It  was  all  entangled  up  with  other  build- 
ings, and  there  were  so  many  arches,  and  flights 
of  steps,  and  various  courts  all  around  it,  that  it 
was  a  long  time  before  we  could  find  out  where 
the  door  was. 

While  we  were  looking  about,  a  little  girl 
came  up  and  asked  us  something.  We  supposed 
she  asked  us  whether  we  wished  to  see  the  church  ; 
so  we  said  Ja,  and  then  she  ran  away.  Presently 
we  saw  a  boy  coming  along,  and  he  asked  us 
something,  and  we  said  Ja  ;  and  then  he  ran  away. 
We  did  not  know  what  they  meant  by  going 
away  ;  but  the  fact  was,  they  went  to  find  some 
men  who  kept  the  keys.  It  seems  there  are  two 
men  who  keep  keys,  and  the  girl  went  for  one 
and  the  boy  for  the  other  ;  and  so,  after  we 
had  waited  about  five  minutes  under  an  arch 
which  led  to  an  old  door,  two  men  came  with 
keys  to  let  us  in.  Uncle  George  paid  them  both, 
because  he  said  the  second  man  that  came  looked 
disappointed.  He  paid  the  girl  and  the  boy 
too  ;  so  he  had  four  persons  to  pay  ;  and  when 
we  got  in,  we  found  that  it  was  nothing  but  a 
Prote=tant  church,  after  all.     I  like  the  Catholic 


Rollo's    Letter.  143 

Rollo's  description  of  the  Catholic  church.  The  ruin  of  Rheinfela. 

churches  the  best.  They  are  a  great  deal  the 
Tn  tiniest. 

We  went  to  see  the  Catholic  church  afterwards. 
There  was  a  monstrous  old  gallery  all  on  one 
side  of  the  church,  and  none  on  the  other.  Then 
there  was  an  organ  away  up  in  a  loft,  and  all 
sorts  of  old  images  and  statues.  I  never  saw 
such  an  old  looking  place. 

As  we  walked  along  the  streets,  or  rather  the 
pathways  between  the  houses,  we  could  see  the 
rocks  and  mountains  away  up  over  our  heads, 
almost  hanging  over  the  town.  They  are  very 
pretty  rocks,  being  all  green,  with  grapevines  and 
bushes. 

Close  by  the  town  too,  up  a  long  and  very 
steep  path,  is  a  monstrous  old  ruin.  The  name 
of  it  is  Rheinfels.  I  can  see  it  from  the  balcony 
of  my  windows.  Besides,  uncle  George  and  I 
went  up  to  it  this  afternoon.  It  is  nothing  but 
old  walls,  and  arches,  and  dark  dungeons,  all 
tumbling  down.  There  was  a  little  fence  and  a 
gate  across  the  entrance,  and  the  gate  was  locked , 
But  there  was  a  man  who  asked  us  something  in 
German  ;  but  we  could  see  it  all  just  as  well  with- 
out going  in  ;  so  we  said  JVein,  which  means  no. 

They  say  that  a  great  many  years  ago  the 
French  took  this  castle,  and  then,  to  prevent  ita 
doing  the  enemy  any  good   forever   afterwards, 


144  ROLLO      ON      THE      EHINE. 

Blowing  up  the  castle.  Rollo's  account  of  the  echo. 

they  put  a  great  deal  of  gunpowder  into  the 
cellars,  and  blew  it  up.  I  did  not  -are  much 
about  the  old  ruins,  but  I  should  have  liked  very 
well  to  have  seen  them  blow  it  up. 

The  waiter  has  just  come  to  call  us  to  go  out 
and  hear  the  echo,  and  so  I  must  go.  I  will  tell 
you  about  it  afterwards. 

The  man  played  on  a  trumpet  down  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  and  we  could  hear  the  echo 
from  the  rocks  and  mountains  on  the  other  side. 
He  also  fired  a  gun  two  or  three  times.  After 
the  gun  was  fired,  for  a  few  minutes  all  was  still ; 
but  then  there  came  back  a  sharp  crack  from  tin. 
other  shore,  and  then  a  long,  rumbling  sound  from 
up  the  river  and  down  the  river,  like  a  peal  of 
distant  thunder. 

It  is  a  gloomy  place  here  after  all,  and  I  shall 
be  glad  when  I  get  out  of  it  ;  for  the  river  is 
down  in  the  bottom  of  such  a  deep  gorge,  that  we 
cannot  see  out  any  where.  There  are  some  old 
castles  about  on  the  hills,  and  they  look  pretty 
enough  at  a  distance  ;  but  when  you  get  near  them 
they  are  nothing  but  old  walls  all  tumbling  down. 
The  vineyards  are  not  pretty  either.  They  are 
all  on  terraces  kept  up  by  long  stone  walls  ;  and 
when  you  are  down  on  the  river,  and  look  up  to 
them,  you  cannot  see  any  thing  but  the  walls, 
with  the  edge  of  the  vineyards,  like  a  little  green 


Rollo's    Letter.  145 


How  the  vineyards  on  the  Rhine  look. 


fringe,  along  on  the  top.  But  there  is  no  great 
toss  in  this  for  the  vineyards  are  not  pretty  wheD 
you  can  see  them.  They  look  just  like  fields  full 
of  beans  growing  on  short  poles. 

I  shall  be  glad  when  we  get  out  of  this  place  -, 
but  uncle  George  says  he  is  going  to  stay  here 
all  day  to-morrow,  to  write  letters  and  to  bring  up 
his  journal.  But  never  mind  ;  I  can  have  a  pretty 
good  time  sitting  on  the  steps  that  go  down  to 
the  water,  and  seeing  the  vessels,  and  steamboats, 
and  rafts  go  by. 

Your  affectionate  cousin, 

Rollo. 

P.  S.  The  Cat  and  the  Mouse  used  to  fight 
each  other  in  old  times,  and  the  Mouse  used  ta 
beat      Was  not  that  funny  ? 


10 


146  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E  . 

Mr  George's  plana  The  towns  on  the  Rhino 


c  h  aptee    xi. 
The    Raft. 

The  morning  after  Rollo  had  finished  the  let- 
ter to  Jenny,  as  recorded  in  the  last  chapter,  hia 
uncle  George  told  him  at  breakfast  time  that  he 
might  amuse  himself  that  day  in  any  way  he 
pleased. 

"  I  shall  be  busy  writing,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  nearly  all  the  morning.  It  is  such  a  still  and 
quiet  place  here  that  I  think  I  had  better  stay 
and  finish  up  my  writing.  Besides,  it  must  be 
an  economical  place,  I  think,  and  we  can  stay 
here  a  day  cheaper  than  we  can  farther  up  the 
river,  at  the  large  towns." 

"  Shall  we  come  to  the  large  towns  soon  ?  " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  uncle.  "  This  deep  gorge 
only  continues  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  farther, 
and  then  we  come  out  into  open  country,  and  to 
the  region  of  large  towns.  You  see  there  is  no 
occasion  for  any  other  towns  in  this  part  of  the 
Rhine  than  villages  of  vinedressers,  except  here 


The    Raft.  147 

Rollo  on  the  river  side.  The  boatmen. 

and  there  a  little  city  where  a  branch  river 
comes  in." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  shall  be  glad  when  we 
get  out.  But  I  will  go  down  to  the  shore,  and 
play  about  there  for  a  while." 

Accordingly,  as  soon  as  Rollo  had  finished  his 
breakfast,  he  went  down  to  the  shore. 

The  hotel  faced  the  river,  though  there  was 
a  road  outside  of  it,  between  it  and  the  water. 
From  the  outer  edge  of  the  road  there  was  a 
steep  slope,  leading  down  to  the  water's  edge. 
This  slope  was  paved  with  stones,  to  prevent 
the  earth  from  being  washed  away  by  the  water 
in  times  of  flood.  Here  and  there  along  this 
slope  were  steps  leading  down  to  the  water.  At 
the  foot  of  these  steps  were  boats,  and  opposite 
to  them,  in  the  road,  there  were  boatmen  stand 
ing  in  groups  here  and  there,  ready  to  take  any 
body  across  the  river  that  wished  to  go. 

Rollo  went  down  to  the  shore,  and  took  his 
seat  on  the  upper  step  of  one  of  the  stairways, 
and  began  to  look  about  him  over  the  water. 
There  were  two  other  boys  sitting  near  by  ;  lut 
Rollo  could  not  talk  to  them,  for  they  knew  only 
German. 

Presently  one  of  the  boatmen  came  up  to  him, 
and  pointing  to  a  boat,  asked  him  a  question. 
Rollo  did  not  understand  what  the  man  said,  but 


148  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Rollo  would  like  to  take  a  sail.  Engaging  a  boatman. 

he  supposed  that  he-  was  asking  him  if  he  did  not 
wish  for  a  boat  So  Rollo  said  Nein,  and  the 
man  went  away. 

There  was  a  village  across  the  river,  in  full 
view  from  where  Rollo  sat.  This  village  con- 
sisted of  a  row  of  white  stone  houses  faciug  the 
river,  and  extending  along  the  margin  of  it,  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountains.  There  seemed  to  be 
just  room  for  them  between  the  mountains  and 
the  shore.  Among  the  houses  was  to  be  seen, 
here  and  there,  the  spire  of  an  antique  church,  or 
an  old  tower,  or  a  ruined  wall.  After  sitting 
quietly  on  the  steps  until  he  had  seen  two  steamers 
go  down,  and  a  fleet  of  canal  boats  from  Hol- 
land towed  up,  Rollo  took  it  into  his  head  that  it 
might  be  a  good  plan  for  him  to  go  across  the 
river.  So  he  went  in  to  ask  his  uncle  George  if 
he  thought  it  would  be  safe  for  him  to  go. 

"  You  will  take  a  boatman?  "  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And  how  long  shall  you  wish  to  be  gone  ?  " 

"  About  an  hour,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  you  may  go." 

So  Rollo  went  down  to  the  shore  again,  and 
as  he  now  began  to  look  at  the  boats  as  if  he 
wished  to  get  into  one  of  them,  a  man  came  tc 
lum  again,  and  asked  him  the  same  question. 
Rollo  said  Ja.     So  the  man  went  down  to  his 


The    Raft.  149 

Crossing  the  river.  The  village  on  the  other  side.  The  ra»*. 

boat,  and  drew  it  up  to  the  lowest  step  of  the 
stairs  where  Rollo  was  standing.  Rollo  got  in, 
and  taking  his  seat,  pointed  over  to  the  other 
side  of  the  river.  The  man  then  pushed  off. 
The  current  was,  however,  very  swift,  and  so  the 
boatman  poled  the  boat  far  up  the  stream  before 
he  would  venture  to  put  out  into  it ;  and  then  he 
was  carried  down  a  great  way  in  going  across. 

When  they  reached  the  landing  on  the  oppo- 
site shore,  Rollo  asked  the  man,  "  How  much  ?  " 
He  knew  what  the  German  was  for  how  much. 
The  man  said,  "  Two  groschen."  So  Rollo  took 
the  two  groschen  from  his  pocket  and  paid  him. 
Two  groschen  are  about  five  cents. 

Rollo  walked  about  in  the  village  where  he 
had  landed  for  nearly  half  an  hour  ;  and  then, 
taking  another  boat  on  that  side,  he  returned  aa 
he  had  come.  On  his  way  back  he  saw  a  great 
raft  coming  down.  He  immediately  conceived 
the  idea  of  taking  a  little  sail  on  that  raft,  down 
the  river.  He  wanted  to  see  "  how  it  would 
seem  "  to  be  on  such  an  immense  raft,  and  how 
the  men  managed  it.  So  he  went  in  to  propose 
the  plan  to  his  uncle  George.  He  said  that  he 
should  like  to  go  down  the  river  a  little  way  on 
the  raft,  and  then  walk  back. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  or  you  might  come 
up  in  the  next  steamer." 


150  ROLLO     OX     THE      RHINE. 

Rollo's  plan  for  a  trip  on  the  raft. 

"  So  I  might,"  said  Rollo. 

"I  have  no  objection,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  How  far  down  may  I  go  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  you  had  better  not  go  more  than  ten  or 
fifteen  miles,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  for  the  raft 
goes  slowly,  —  probably  not  more  than  two  or 
three  miles  an  hour,  —  and  it  would  take  you  four 
or  five  hours,  perhaps,  to  go  down  ten  miles. 
You  would,  however,  come  back  quick  in  the 
steamer.  Go  down  stairs  and  consider  the  sub- 
ject carefully,  and  form  your  plan  complete. 
Consider  how  you  will  manage  to  get  on  board 
the  raft,  and  to  get  off  again  ;  and  where  you 
will  stop  to  take  the  steamer,  and  when  you  will 
get  home ;  and  when  you  have  planned  it  all 
completely,  come  to  me  again." 

So  Rollo  went  down,  and  after  making  various 
inquiries  and  calculations,  he  returned  in  about 
ten  minutes  to  Mr.  George,  with  the  following 
plaD. 

"  The  waiter  tells  me,"  said  he,  "  that  the  cap- 
tain of  the  raft  will  take  me  down  as  far  as  I 
want  to  go,  and  set  me  ashore  any  where,  in  his 
boat,  for  two  or  three  groschen,  and  that  one  of 
the  boatmen  here  will  take  me  out  to  the  raft, 
when  she  comes  by,  for  two  groschen.  A  good 
place  for  me  to  stop  would  be  Boppard,  which  is 
about  ten  or  twelve  miles  below  here.     The  raft 


The    Raft.  151 

The  plan  of  the  raft  voyage.  How  to  make  the  batgain. 

will  get  there  about  two  o'clock.  Then  there 
will  be  a  steamer  coming  along  by  there  at  three, 
which  will  bring  up  here  at  four,  just  about 
dinner  time.  The  waiter  says  that  he  will  go 
out  wit) i  me  to  the  raft,  and  explain  it  all  to  the 
captain,  because  the  captain  would  not  under- 
stand me,  as  he  only  knows  German." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  That's  a 
very  good  plan.  Only  I  advise  you  to  make  a 
bargain  with  the  captain  to  put  you  ashore  any 
where  you  like.  Because  you  know  you  may  get 
tired  before  you  have  gone  so  far  as  ten  miles. 

"  In  fact,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  I  would 
not  say  any  thing  about  the  distance  that  you 
wish  to  go  to  the  captain.  Just  make  a  bargain 
with  him  to  let  you  go  aboard  his  raft  for  a  little 
while,  and  to  send  you  ashore  whenever  you 
wish  to  go." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hollo,  "  I  will ;  that  will  be  the 
best  plan.  But  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  want  to  go 
as  far  as  ten  miles." 

So  Rollo  went  to  his  trunk,  and  began  to  un- 
lock it  in  a  hurried  manner  ;  and  when  he  had 
opened  it,  he  put  his  hand  down  into  it  at  the 
left  hand  corner,  on  the  front  side,  which  was  the 
blace  where  he  always  kept  his  fishing  line. 

"  What  are  you  looking  for  ? "  said  Mr. 
George. 


152  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Why  Rollo  carried  his  fishing  line.     Mr.  George  sends  for  a  commissioner, 

"  My  fishing  line,"  replied  Rollo  ;  "  is  not  that 
a  good  plan  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  an  excellent  plan.'' 

Rollo  had  no  very  definite  idea  of  being  able 
to  fish  while  on  the  raft,  but  there  was  a  sort  of 
instinct  which  prompted  him  always  to  take  \m 
fishing  line  whenever  he  went  on  any  excursion 
whatever  that  was  connected  with  the  water. 
Mr.  George  had  a  pretty  definite  idea  that  he 
would  not  be  able  to  fish  ;  but  still  he  thought  it 
a  good  plan  for  Rollo  to  take  the  line,  for  he  ob- 
served that  to  have  a  fishing  line  in  his  pocket, 
on  such  occasions,  was  always  a  source  of  pleasure 
to  a  boy,  even  if  he  did  not  use  it  at  all. 

Rollo,  having  found  his  fishing  line,  shut  and 
locked  his  trunk,  and  ran  down  stairs. 

As  soon  as  he  had  gone,  Mr.  George  rose  and 
rang  the  bell. 

Very  soon  the  waiter  came  to  the  door. 

"  This  young  gentleman  who  is  with  me,"  said 
Mr.  George,  "  wishes  to  go  on  board  this  raft, 
and  sail  down  the  river  a  little  way." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter.  "  Rudolf  is  ar- 
ranging it  for  him." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  And  now  I 
wish  to  have  you  send  a  commissioner  secretly  to 
accompany  him.  The  commissioner  is  to  remain 
on  the  raft  as  long  as  Rollo  does,  and  leave  it 


The    Raft.  153 

Secret  instructions.  Rollo's  embarkation. 

when  he  leaves  it,  and  keep  in  sight  of  him  all 
the  time  till  he  gets  home,  so  as  to  see  that  he 
does  not  get  into  any  difficulty." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter. 

"  But  let  the  commissioner  understand  that  he 
is  not  to  let  Rollo  know  any  thing  about  his  hav- 
ing any  charge  over  him,  nor  to  communicate 
with  him  in  any  way,  unless  some  emergency 
should  arise  requiring  him  to  interpose." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  waiter,  "  I  will  explain  it 
to  him." 

"  And  choose  a  good-natured  and  careful  man 
to  send,"  continued  Mr.  George  ;  "  one  that  speaks 
French." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  waiter  ;  and  so  saying, 
he  disappeared,  leaving  Mr.  George  to  go  on 
with  his  writing. 

In  the  mean  time  Rollo  had  gone  down  to  the 
shore  with  the  waiter  Rudolf,  and  was  standing 
there  near  a  boat  which  was  drawn  up  at  the 
foot  of  the  landing  stairs,  watching  the  raft,  which 
was  now  getting  pretty  near.  There  was  a  great 
company  of  men  at  each  end  of  the  raft.  Rollo 
could  see  those  at  the  lowest  end  the  plainest. 
They  were  standing  in  rows  near  the  end  of  the 
raft,  and  every  six  of  them  had  an  oar.  There 
were  eight  or  ten  of  these  oars,  all  projecting 
forward,  from  the  front  end  of  tbe  raft,  and  the 


154  R  0  L  L  0     ON     THE      R  H  I N  E  . 

The  oarsmen  on  the  raft.  A  strange  way  to  row.  Steering. 

raftsmen,  by  working  them,  seemed  to  be  endeav- 
oring to  row  that  end  of  the  raft  out  farther  into 
the  stream.  It  was  the  same  at  the  farther  end 
of  the  raft.  There  was  a  similar  number  of  oars- 
men there,  and  of  oars,  only  those  projected  be- 
hind, just  as  the  others  did  before.  There  were 
no  oars  at  all  along  the  sides  of  the  raft. 

The  fact  is,  that  these  monstrous  rafts  are  al- 
ways allowed  to  float  down  by  the  current,  the 
men  not  attempting  to  hasten  them  on  their  way 
by  rowing.  All  that  they  attempt  to  do  by  their 
labor  is  to  keep  the  immense  and  unwieldy  mass 
in  the  middle  of  the  stream.  Thus  they  only 
need  oars  at  the  two  ends,  and  the  working  of 
them  only  tends  to  row  the  raft  sidewise,  as  it 
were.  Sometimes  they  have  to  row  the  ends  from 
left  to  right,  and  sometimes  from  right  to  left, 
according  as  the  current  tends  to  drift  the  raft 
towards  the  left  or  the  right  bank  of  the  river. 

Rollo  did  not  understand  this  at  first,  and  ac- 
cordingly, when  he  first  saw  these -rafts  coming 
with  a  dense  crowd  of  men  at  each  end,  rowing 
vigorously,  while  there  was  not  a  single  oar  to  be 
Been,  nor  even  any  place  for  an  oar  along  the 
sides,  he  was  very  much  surprised  at  the  spec- 
tacle. He  thought  that  the  men  at  the  back  end 
of  the  raft  were  sculling  ;  but  what  those  at  the 
forward  end  were  doing  he  could  not  imagine. 


The    Raft.  155 

A  description  of  the  raft  whicli  Rollo  saw  on  the  Rhine. 

When,  however,  he  came  to  consider  the  case, 
lie  saw  what  the  explanation  must  be,  and  so  he 
understood  the  subject  perfectly. 

At  length,  when  Rollo  saw  that  the  forward 
end  of  the  raft,  in  its  progress  down  the  river, 
had  come  nearly  opposite  to  the  place  where  he 
was  standing,  he  got  into  the  boat,  and  the  boat- 
man rowed  him  out  to  the  raft.  As  soon  as  they 
reached  the  raft  Rollo  stepped  out  upon  the 
boards  and  logs.  The  top  of  the  raft  made  a 
very  good  and  smooth  floor,  being  covered  with 
boards,  and  it  was  high  and  dry  above  the  water. 
Rollo  looked  down  into  the  interstices,  and  saw 
that  that  part  of  the  raft  which  was  under  water 
was  formed  of  logs  and  timbers  of  very  large 
size,  placed  close  together  side  by  side,  with  a 
layer  above  crossing  the  layer  below.  The  whole 
was  then  covered  with  a  flooring  of  boards,  so 
close  and  continuous  that  Rollo  had  to  look  for 
some  time  before  he  could  find  any  openings 
where  he  could  look  down  and  see  how  the  raft 
was  constructed. 

In  the  middle  of  the  raft  were  several  houses. 
The  houses  were  made  of  boards,  and  were  of 
the  plainest  and  simplest  construction.  Around 
the  doors  of  these  houses  several  women  were 
Bitting  wherever  they  could  find  shady  places. 
Some  were   knitting    and    some   were    sewing, 


156  ROLLO     ON     THE      RHINE. 

The  people  on  the  raft.  American  friends. 

There  were  several  children  there  too,  amusing 
themselves  in  various  ways.  One  was  skipping 
a  rope,  Rudolf  conducted  Rollo  up  to  one  of 
these  families,  aud  told  the  women  that  he  was  an 
American  boy,  who  was  travelling  with  his  uncle 
on  the  Rhine,  and  seeing  this  raft  going  by,  had 
a  curiosity  to  come  on  board  of  it.  The  women 
looked  very  much  pleased  when  they  heard  this. 
Some  of  them  had  friends  in  America,  and  others 
were  thinking  of  going  themselves  with  their 
husbands  ;  and  they  immediately  began  to  talk 
very  volubly  to  Rollo,  and  to  ask  him  questions. 
But  as  they  spoke  German,  Rollo  could  not  under 
stand  what  they  said. 

In  the  mean  time  the  waiter  had  gone  away 
to  speak  to  the  captain  of  the  raft,  and  to  make 
arrangements  for  having  Rollo  put  ashore  when  he 
had  sailed  long  enough  upon  it.  The  captain  was 
walking  to  and  fro,  upon  a  raised  platform,  near 
the  middle  of  the  raft.  This  platform  I  will  de- 
scribe presently.  In  a  few  minutes  the  man  re- 
turned. 

"  The  captain  gives  you  a  good  welcome,"  said 
he,  "  and  says  he  wishes  he  could  talk  English, 
for  he  wants  to  ask  you  a  great  many  questions 
about  America.  He  says  you  may  stay  on  the 
raft  as  long  as  you  please,  and  when  you  wish  to 
go  ashore,  you  have  only  to  go  and  get  on  board 


The    Raft.  157 

Hollo  alone.  The  river.  The  commissioner. 

one  of  the  boats,  and  that  will  be  a  signal.  He 
will  soon  see  you  there,  and  will  send  a  man  to 
row  you  to  the  shore." 

Rollo  liked  this  plan  very  much.  So  Rudolf, 
having  arranged  every  thing,  wished  Rollo  a 
"  good  voyage,"  and  went  off  in  the  boat  as  he 
came. 

Thus  Rollo  was  left  alone,  as  it  were,  upon  the 
raft ;  and  for  a  moment  lie  felt  a  little  appalled 
at  the  idea  of  going  down  through  such  a  dark 
and  gloomy  gorge  as  the  bed  of  the  river  here 
presented  to  view,  on  such  a  strange  conveyance, 
and  surrounded  with  so  wild  and  savage  a  horde 
of  men  as  the  raftsmen  were,  —  especially  since, 
as  he  supposed,  there  was  not  a  human  being  on 
board  with  whom  he  could  exchange  a  word  of 
conversation.  It  is  true  the  commissioner  whom 
his  uncle  George  had  sent  was  on  the  raft.  He 
had  come  out  in  the  same  boat  with  Rollo,  and 
had  remained  when  the  boat  went  back  to  the 
shore.  But  Rollo  had  not  noticed  him  particu- 
larly. He  observed,  it  is  true,  that  two  men 
came  with  him  to  the  raft,  and  that  only  one  re- 
turned ;  but  he  thought  it  probable  that  the  other 
might  be  going  down  the  river  a  little  way,  or 
perhaps  that  he  belonged  to  the  raft.  He  had 
not  the  least  idea  that  the  man  had  come  to  take 
charge  of  him,  and   so   he  felt  as  if  he  wei* 


158  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  fire  upon  the  raft.  The  kettle  on  the  fire. 

entirely  aloDe  in  the  new  and  strange  scene  to 
which  he  found  himself  so  suddenly  transferred. 

There  were,  however,  so  many  things  to  attract 
his  attention  that  at  first  he  had  no  time  to  think 
much  of  his  loneliness.  There  was  a  fire  burning 
at  a  certain  part  of  the  raft,  not  far  from  the 
dooi  of  one  of  the  houses,  and  he  went  to  see  it. 
As  soon  as  he  reached  it,  the  mystery  in  respect 
to  the  means  of  having  a  fire  on  such  a  structure, 
without  setting  the  boards  and  timbers  on  fire, 
was  at  once  solved.  Rollo  found  that  the  fire 
was"  built  upon  a  hearth  of  sand.  There  was  a 
large  box,  about  four  feet  square  and  a  foot  deep, 
which  box  was  filled  with  sand,  and  the  fire  was 
built  in  the  middle  of  it.  It  seemed  to  Rollo 
that  this  was  a  very  easy  way  to  make  a  fireplace, 
especially  as  the  sand  seemed  to  be  of  a  very 
common  kind,  such  as  the  raftsmen  had  probably 
shovelled  up  somewhere  on  the  shore  of  the 
river. 

"  The  very  next  time  I  build  a  raft,"  said 
Rollo,  "  I  will  have  a  fire  on  it  in  exactly  that 
way." 

There  was  a  sort  of  barricade  or  screen  built 
up  on  two  sides  of  this  fire,  to  keep  the  wind 
from  blowing  the  flame  and  the  heat  away  from 
the  kettle  that  was  hung  over  it.  This  screeu 
was  made  of  short  boards,  nailed  to  three  posts. 


The    Raft.  159 

The  captain's  station  on  the  raft. 

that  were  placed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make, 
when  the  boards  were  nailed  to  them,  two  short 
fences,  at  right  angles  to  each  other,  or  like  two 
sides  of  a  high  box.  The  corner  of  this  screen 
was  turned  towards  the  wind,  and  thus  the  fire 
\-as  sheltered.  A  pole  passed  across  from  on: 
of  the  posts  to  the  other,  and  the  kettle  was  hung 
upon  the  pole. 

After  examining  this  fireplace  Rollo  went  to 
look  at  the  platform  where  the  captain  had  his 
station.  This  platform  was  about  six  feet  high 
and  ten  feet  long  ;  and  it  was  just  wide  enough 
for  the  captain  to  walk  to  and  fro  upon  it. 
There  was  a  flight  of  steps  leading  up  to  this 
platform  from  the  floor  of  the  raft,  and  a  little 
railing  on  each  side  of  it,  to  keep  the  captain 
from  falling  off  while  he  was  walking  there. 

The  object  of  having  this  platform  raised  in 
this  way,  was  to  give  the  captain  a  more  com- 
manding position,  so  as  not  only  to  enable  him 
to  survey  the  whole  of  the  raft,  and  observe  how 
every  thing  was  going  on  upon  it,  but  also  to  give 
him  a  good  view  of  the  river  below,  so  that -he 
might  watch  the  currents,  and  see  how  the  raft 
was  drifting,  and  give  the  necessary  orders  for 
working  it  one  way  or  the  other,  as  might  be 
required  in  order  to  keep  it  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream. 


160  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Rowing  on  a  very  large  scale.  Tbe  appearance  of  the  raftsmen. 

Then  Rollo  went  to  the  forward  end  of  the 
raft  to  see  the  raftsmen  row.  The  oars  were  of 
monstrous  size,  as  you  might  well  suppose  to  be 
(.he  case  from  the  fact  that  each  of  them  required 
six  men  to  work  it.  These  six  men  all  stood  in 
a  row  along  the  handle  of  the  oar,  which  seemed 
to  be  as  large  as  a  small  mast.  They  all  pressed 
down  upon  the  handle  of  the  oar  so  as  to  raise 
the  blade  out  of  the  water,  and  then  walked 
along  over  the  floor  of  the  raft  quite  a  consider- 
able distance.  At  last  they  stopped,  and  lifting 
up  their  hands,  they  allowed  the  blade  of  the  oar 
to  go  down  into  the  water.  Then  they  turned, 
and  began  to  push  the  oar  with  their  hands  the 
other  way.  The  outside  men  had  to  reach  up 
very  high,  for  as  the  oar  was  very  long,  and  the 
blade  was  now  necessarily  in  the  water,  the  end 
of  the  handle  was  raised  quite  high  in  the  air. 
The  men,  accordingly,  that  were  nearest  the  end 
of  the  oar,  were  obliged  to  hold  their  hands  up 
high,  in  order  to  reach  it ;  and  they  all  walked 
along  very  deliberately,  like  a  platoon  of  soldiers, 
pushing  the  oar  before  them  as  they  advanced. 
And  as  each  of  the  other  six  oars  had  a  similar 
platoon  marching  with  it  to  and  fro,  and  as  all 
acted  in  concert,  and  kept  time  with  each  other 
in  their  motions,  the  whole  operation  had  quite 
the  appearance  of  a  military  manoeuvre.     Rollo 


The    Raft.  16 

A  steamer  carrying  tourists  passes  the  raft. 

watched  it  for  some  time  with  great  satis- 
faction. 

After  this  Rollo  walked  up  and  down  the  raft 
two  or  three  times,  and  then  his  attention  was 
attracted  by  a  steamer  going  by.  The  steamer 
cut  her  way  through  the  water  with  great  speed, 
and  the  waves  made  by  her  paddle  wheels  dashed 
up  against  the  margin  of  the  raft  as  if  it  had 
been  along  shore. 

There  was  a  great  number  of  tourists  on  board 
the  steamer.  Rollo  could  see  them  very  dis- 
tinctly sitting  under  the  awning  on  the  deck. 
Some  were  standing  by  the  railing  and  examining 
the  raft  by  means  of  their  spy  glasses  or  opera 
glasses.  Others  were  seated  at  tables,  eating 
late  breakfasts,  in  little  parties  by  themselves. 
The  boat  glided  by  very  swiftly,  however,  and 
soon  Rollo  could  see  nothing  of  her  but  the  stern, 
and  the  foaming  wake  which  her  paddle  wheels 
left  behind  them  in  the  water. 

As  soon  as  the  steamboat  had  gone  by,  Rollo 
began  to  feel  a  slight  sense  of  loneliness  on  the 
raft,  which  feeling  was  increased  by  the  sombre 
aspect  of  the  scenery  around  him.  The  river 
was  closely  shut  in  by  mountains  on  both  sides, 
and  between  them  the  raft  seemed  to  be  drifting 
slowly  down  into  a  dark  and  gloomy  gorge,  which, 
though  it  might  have  seemed  simply  sublime  to 
II 


162  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Rollo  concludes  he  does  not  want  to  go  all  the  way  to  Boppard. 

a  pleasant  party  viewing  it  together  from  the 
cheerful  deck  of  a  steamer,  or  from  a  comfortable 
carriage  on  the  banks,  was  well  fitted  to  awaken 
an  emotion  of  awe  and  terror  in  the  mind  of  a 
boy  like  Rollo,  floating  down  into  it  helplessly 
on  an  enormous  raft,  with  a  hundred  men,  looking 
more  like  brigands  than  any  thing  else,  marching 
solemnly  to  and  fro  at  either  end  of  it,  working 
prodigious  oars,  with  incessant  toil,  to  prevent 
its  being  carried  upon  the  rocks  and  dashed  to 
pieces.  In  fact,  Rollo  began  soon  to  wish  that 
he  was  safe  on  shore  again. 

"  I  am  very  thankful,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  that 
I  made  a  bargain  with  the  captain  to  put  me 
ashore  whenever  I  wished  to  go.  I  don't  believe 
that  I  shall  wish  to  go  more  than  half  way  to 
Boppard." 

So  saying,  Rollo  looked  anxiously  down  the 
river.  The  mountains  looked  more  and  more 
dark  and  gloomy,  and  they  appeared  to  shut,  in 
before  him  in  such  a  manner  that  he  could  not 
see  how  it  could  be  possible  for  such  an  immense 
raft  to  twist  its  way  through  between  them. 

"  I  don't  believe  I  shall  wish  to  go  more  tliao 
a  quarter  of  the  way  to  Boppard,"  said  he. 

Two  or  three  minutes  afterwards,  on  looking 
back,  he  saw  the  town  of  St.  Goar,  where  he 
had  embarked,  gradually  disappearing  behind  a 


'z-'~-l:'  ■ 


The    Raft.  165 

Rollo  concludes  that  lie  does  not  want  to  go  any  farther 

wooded  promontory  which  was  slowly  coming  in 
the  way,  and  cutting  it  off  from  view. 

"  In  fact,"  said  Rollo  to  himself,  "  since  I  am 
not  going  all  the  way  to  Boppard,  1  ±iad  better 
not  go  much  farther ;  for  I  shall  have  to  walk 
back,  as  the  steamer  does  not  stop  this  side  of 
Boppard.  Besides,  I  have  seen  all  that  there  is 
on  the  raft  already,  and  there  is  no  use  in  stay- 
ing on  it  any  longer." 

So  he  concluded  to  go  at  once  to  the  boat,  ac- 
cording to  the  arrangement  which  he  had  made 
with  the  captain.  He  was  afraid  that  he  might 
have  to  wait  some  time  before  the  captain  would 
see  him  ;  but  he  did  not.  The  captain  saw  him 
immediately,  and  sent  a  man  to  row  him  ashore. 
Two  men  came,  in  fact,  the  commissioner  being 
one  of  them.  But  Rollo  did  not  pay  any  partic- 
ular attention  to  this  circumstance.  He  did  not 
even  observe  that  it  was  the  same  man  that  had 
come  on  board  with  him.  Rollo  could  not  talk 
to  the  oarsman  on  the  way,  but  on  landing  he 
gave  him  a  little  money,  —  about  what  he  thought 
was  proper,  —  and  then  went  up  into  the  road 
with  a  view  to  go  home.  The  commissioner,  in 
order  not  to  awaken  any  suspicions  in  Rollo's 
mind  that  he  was  following  him,  turned  away  aa 
soon  as  he  landed,  and  walked  along  the  tow 
path,  down  the  stream. 


166  ROLLO      ON      THE      RlilNE. 

Rollo  arrives  at  the  hotel.  A  question.  Honesty. 

.  Rollo  went  slowly  home.  He  had  not  been 
more  than  half  an  hour  on  the  raft,  and  had 
not  gone  down  the  stream  more  than  a  mile  ;  so 
that  in  three  quarters  of  an  hour  after  he  had 
left  his  uncle  at  the  hotel  lie  found  himself  draw- 
ing near  to  it  again,  on  his  return. 

He  felt  a  little  ashamed  to  get  back  so  soon. 
So  he  thought  that  he  would  not  go  in  at  once 
and  report  himself  to  his  uncle,  but  would  go 
down  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  see  if  he  could 
find  a  place  to  fish  a  little  while,  until  some  little 
time  should  have  elapsed,  so  as  to  give  to  the 
period  of  his  absence  a  tolerably  respectable 
duration.  "  Uncle  George  will  laugh  at  me," 
said  he  to  himself,  "  if  he  sees  me  come  home  so 
soon." 

So  Rollo  went  down  to  the  quay,  and  taking 
out  his  fishing  line,  he  began  to  make  arrange- 
ments for  fishing.  He  did  not,  however,  feel 
quite  at  his  ease.  There  seemed  to  be  some-' 
thing  a  little  like  artifice  in  thus  prolonging  his 
absence  in  order  to  make  his  uncle  think  that 
he  had  gone  farther  down  the  river  than  he 
had  been.  It  was  not  being  quite  honest,  be 
thought. 

"  After  all,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  I'll  go  and 
tell  uncle  George  now.  I  shall  have  a  better 
time  fishing  if  I  do.     If  he  chooses  to  lauiHi  at 


The    Rapt.  161 

Rollo  reports  hiinself.  Mr.  George's  congratulations. 

mo,  he  may.    If  he  is  going  to  do  it,  I  should  like 
to  have  it  over." 

So  he  went  into  the  hotel,  and  advanced  some 
what  timidly  to  the  door  of  the  room  where  he 
had  left  his  uncle  writing.  He  opened  the  door, 
and  looking  in,  said,  — 

"  Uncle  George !    I've  got  back." 

Mr.  George  did  not  seem  at  all  surprised,  but 
looking  up  a  moment  from  his  writing,  he  smiled, 
and  said,  — 

"  Ah  !  I'm  glad  to  see  you  safe  back  again. 
It  is  rather  lonesome  here  without  you.  Did  you 
have  a  pleasant  voyage  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  very  pleasant.  Only  I 
did  not  go  very  far.  I  got  them  to  put  me  ashore 
about  a  mile  below  here." 

"  That  was  right,"  said  Mr.  George.  "  You  did 
exactly  as  I  should  have  done  myself.  In  fact 
you  can  see  all  you  wish  to  see  on  such  a  raft  in 
half  an  hour." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  found  that  I  could." 

"  And  I  am  very  glad  that  you  came  to  tell 
me,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  as  soon  as  you  came 
home." 

So  Rollo,  quite  relieved  in  mind,  went  dowu 
stairs  again,  and  returning  to  the  quay,  he  re 
sumed  his  fishing. 


168  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E 


Rollo  grows  anxious  to  roove  on. 


Chapter    XII. 
Dinner. 

About  half  past  three  o'clock  Rollo  went  up 
to  his  uncle's  room. 

"  Uncle  George,"  said  he,  "  have  not  you  got 
almost  through  with  your  writing?" 

"Why,"  said  Mr.  George,  "are  you  tired  of 
staying  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  am  tired  of  being  down 
in  the  bottom  of  such  a  deep  valley.  I  wish  you 
would  put  away  your  writing  and  go  on  up  the 
river  till  we  get  out  where  we  can  see,  and  then 
you  may  write  as  much  as  you  please." 

"  Do  you  wish  to  go  up  the  river  to-night  ?  " 
asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "  very  much." 

Mr.  George  took  out  his  watch. 

"  Go  down  and  ask  the  waiter  when  the  next 
steamer  comes  along." 

Rollo  went  down,  and  presently  returned  with 
the  report  that  the  next  steamer  came  by  at  five 
o'clock. 


Dinner.  169 

Bingen.  Hollo's  plan  for  dinner  on  the  way.  Starting. 

"  There  is  a  place  up  the  river  about  two  hours' 
sail,  called  Bingen,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  where 
the  mountains  end.  Above  that  the  country  ia 
open  and  level,  and  the  river  wide.  We  might 
go  up  there,  I  suppose ;  but  what  should  we  do 
for  dinner  ?  " 

"  We  might  have  dinner  on  board  the  steamer," 
said  Rollo. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  that's  what 
we  will  do.  You  may  go  and  tell  the  waiter  to 
bring  me  the  bill,  and  then  be  ready  at  half  past 
four.  That  will  give  me  an  hour  more  to 
write." 

At  half  past  four  Rollo  came  to  tell  Mr. 
George  that  the  steamer  was  coming.  The 
trunk  had  been  previously  carried  down  and  put 
on  board  a  small  boat,  for  this  was  one  of  the 
places  where  the  steamers  were  not  accustomed 
to  come  up  to  a  pier,  but  received  and  landed 
passengers  by  means  of  small  boats  that  went 
out  to  meet  them  in  the  middle  of  the  river. 
Such  a  boat  was  now  ready  at  the  foot  of  the 
landing  stairs,  and  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  got 
into  it. 

The  boatman  waited  until  the  steamer  came 
pretty  near,  and  then  he  rowed  out  to  meet  it. 
He  stopped  rowing  when  the  boat  was  opposite 
to    the   paddle    wheel    of  the  steamer,   and   the1 


17U  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Taking  the  steamer  for  up  the  river. 

steamer  stopped  her  engine  at  the  same  time. 
A  man  who  stood  on  the  paddle  box  threw 
a  rope  to  the  boat,  and  the  boatman  made 
this  rope  fast  to  a  belaying  pin  that  was  set  for 
the  purpose  near  the  bow  of  the  boat.  By  means 
of  this  rope  the  boat  was  then  drawn  rapidly  up 
alongside  the  steamer,  at  a  place  directly  aft 
the  paddle  wheel,  where  there  was  a  little  stair- 
way above,  and  a  small  platform  below,  both  of 
which,  when  not  in  use,  were  drawn  up  out  of  the 
way,  but  which  were  always  let  down  when  pas- 
sengers were  to  come  on  board.  As  soon  as  the 
boat  came  alongside  this  apparatus,  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George  stepped  out  upon  the  platform,  and 
went  up  the  little  stairway,  the  hands  on  board 
the  steamer  standing  there  to  help  them.  In  a 
moment  more  the  trunk  was  passed  up,  the  boat 
was  pushed  off,  and  the  paddle  wheels  of  the 
steamer  were  put  in  motion ;  and  thus,  almost 
before  Rollo  had  time  to  think  what  was  going 
on,  he  found  himself  comfortably  seated  on  a 
camp  stool  under  the  awning,  by  the  side  of  Mr. 
George,  on  the  quarter  deck  of  the  steamer, 
and  sailing  swiftly  along  on  his  voyage  up  the 
river. 

"  What  sudden  transitions  we  pass  through," 
eaid  Mr.  George,  "  in  travelling  on  the  Rhine !  " 

'■  Yes,"   said   Rollo,    "  it   seems   scarcely  five 


Dinner.  171 

Sudden  transitions.  The  banks  of  the  Rhine. 

minutes  ago  that  I  was  sitting,  all  by  myself,  on 
the  bank  of  a  lonesome  river,  fishing  ;  and  now  1 
am  on  board  a  steamer,  with  all  this  company,  and 
dashing  away  through  the  water  at  a  great  rate.'' 

"  True,"  said  Mr.  George ;  "  and  how  quickly 
ve  came  on  board!  One  minute  we  are  creep- 
ng  along  slowly  over  the  water  in  a  little  boat, 
■vnd  the  next,  as  if  by  some  sort  of  magic,  we 
A.nd  ourselves  on  the  deck  of  the  steamer,  with 
the  boat  drifting  away  astern." 

"  How  high  the  mountains  are,"  said  Rollo, 
"  aloug  the  shores  here  !  Do  the  mountains  end 
at  Bingen  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  at  Bingen,  or  soon 
after  that.  There  the  country  opens,  and  the 
banks  of  the  river  become  level  and  flat.  The 
river  widens,  and  there  are  a  great  many  islands 
in  it.  There  we  come  to  railroads  again  too, 
for  where  the  land  is  level  they  can  make  rail- 
roads very  easily.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to 
make  a  railroad  here,  though  I  believe  they  are 
going  to  do  it." 

"  I  should  think  it  would  be  difficult,"  said 
Rollo.  "  Br;t  now,  uncle  George,  about  our 
dinner." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "about  the 
dinner."  So  the  two  travellers  held  a  consulta- 
tion on  this  subiect,  and  concluded  what  to  have 


172         Rollo 

ON 

THE 

Ehine. 

Ordering  dinner. 

The  table  ou  deck. 

A  few  minutes  afterwards  a  waiter  came  by, 
carrying  a  large  salver,  with  some  coffee  and 
bread  and  butter  upon  it,  for  a  gentleman  on 
the  deck.  Mr.  George  beckoned  to  this  waiter, 
and  when  he  came  to  him,  he  ordered  the  dinner 
that  he  and  Rollo  had  agreed  upon.  It  consisted 
of  sausages  for  Rollo,  a  beefsteak  for  Mr.  George, 
and  fried  potatoes  for  both.  After  that  they 
were  to  have  an  omelet  and  some  coffee.  The 
coffee  on  board  the  Rhine  steamers,  being  made 
with  very  rich  and  pure  milk,  is  delicious. 

The  waiter  brought  up  a  small  square  table  to 
the  part  of  the  deck  where  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  were  sitting,  which  was  under  the  shady 
side  of  the  awning,  and  set  it  for  their  dinner. 
In  about  twenty  minutes  the  dinner  "was  ready. 
The  table  itself  was  as  neat  and  nice  as  possible, 
and  the  dishes  which  had  been  ordered  were  pre- 
pared in  the  most  perfect  manner.  I  need  not 
add,  I  suppose,  that  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  —  it 
being  now  so  late  —  were  provided  with  excellent 
appetites.  So  they  had  a  very  good  time  eating 
their  dinner.  While  they  were  eating  it  they 
could  watch  the  changes  in  the  scenery  of  the 
banks,  as  they  glided  swiftly  along,  and  observe 
the  steamers,  tow  boats,  and  other  river  craft, 
that  passed  them  from  time  to  time. 

"While  they  were  at  d^ner,  Rollo  asked  Mr. 


Dinner 


173 


Mr.  George  describes  the  raft  business  on  the  Rhine. 

George  about  the  rafts,  and  where  the  timber 
that  i'hey  were  made  of  came  from. 


DINNER   ON   THE  RHINE. 


"  Why,  you  see,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  the  River 
Rhine,  in  the  upper  portions  of  it,  has  a  great 


174  ROLLO     ON    THE     RHINE. 

Tlie  timber  regions  of  Germany.  Raisi:  g  trees. 

many  branches  which  come  down  from  among 
the  mountains,  where  nothing  will  grow  well  but 
timber.  So  they  reserve  these  places  for  forests, 
and  as  fast  as  the  timber  gets  grown,  they  cut  it 
down,  and  slide  it  down  the  slopes  to  the  nearest 
stream,  and  then  float  it  along  till  they  come  to 
great  streams  ;  and  there  they  form  it  into  rafts, 
and  send  it  down  the  river  to  Holland  and  Bel- 
gium, where  timber  does  not  grow." 

"  Would  not  timber  grow  in  Belgium  and  Hol- 
land ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  it  would  grow  very 
well,  but  the  land  is  too  valuable  to  appropriate 
it  to  such  a  purpose.  The  whole  country  below 
Cologne,  where  we  came  to  the  river,  is  smooth 
and  level,  and  free  from  stones,  so  that  it  is  easily 
ploughed  and  tilled  ;  and  thus  grain,  and  flax, 
and  other  very  valuable  crops  can  be  raised  upon 
it.  They  raise  a  few  trees  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  but  not  many.'' 

"  I  never  heard  of  raising  trees  before,"  said  Rol- 
lo, "  except  apple  trees,  or  something  like  that." 

"  True,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  because  in  America, 
as  that  is  a  new  country,  there  is  an  abundance  of 
native  forests,  where  the  trees  grow  wild.  But 
you  must  remember  that  every  foot  of  land  in 
Europe  has  been  in  the  possession  of  man,  and 
occupied  by  him,  for  two  thousand  years.     There 


Dinner.  175 

Agriculture  in  an  old  country. 

is  not  a  field  or  a  hill,  or  even  a  rocky  steep  on 
the  mountain  side,  which  has  not  had  sixty  or 
seventy  generations  of  owners,  who  have  all  been 
watching  it,  and  taking  care  of  it,  and  improving 
it  more  or  less  all  that  time  ;  each  one  carefully 
considering  what  his  land  can  produce  most 
profitably,  and  taking  care  of  it  and  managing  it 
especially  with  reference  to  that  production.  If 
his  land  is  smooth  and  level,  he  ploughs  it,  and 
cultivates  it  for  grass,  or  grain,  or  other  plants 
requiring  special  tillage.  If  it  is  in  steep  slopes, 
with  a  warm  exposure,  he  terraces  it  up,  and 
makes  vineyards  of  it.  If  it  is  in  steep  slopes, 
with  a  cold  exposure,  then  it  will  do  for  timber, 
provided  there  are  streams  near  it,  so  that  he  can 
float  the  timber  away.  If  there  are  no  streams 
near  it,  he  can  use  it  as  pasture  ground  for  sheep 
or  cattle  ;  for  the  wool,  or  the  butter  and  cheese, 
which  he  obtains  from  this  kind  of  farming,  can 
)G  transported  without  streams  ;  or,  at  least,  such 
commodities  will  bear  transporting  farther  be- 
fore coming  to  a  stream  than  wood  or  timber. 
Thus,  you  see,  whatever  the  land  is  fit  for,  it  has 
been  appropriated  to  for  a  great  many  centuries  ; 
and  it  has  all  been  cropped  over  and  over 
again,  even  where  the  crop  is  a  forest  of  trees. 
If  we  allow  the  trees  even  a  hundred  yeara 
to    grow,  before  they  are  large  enough  to  cut 


176  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  steamer  with  tourists  going  down  the  river. 

that  would  give,  in  two  thousand  years,  time  to 
cut  them  off  and  let  them  grow  up  again  twenty 
times." 

"  Here  comes  a  steamer,"  said  Rollo. 

Just  then  the  bow  of  a  steamer  came  shooting 
into  view,  down  the  river.  On  the  forward  part 
of  the  deck  were  several  soldiers  and  laborers, 
with  women  and  children  that  looked  like  emi- 
grants, and  also  a  -huge  pile  of  trunks  and  mer- 
chandise covered  with  a  tarpauling.  Then  came 
the  paddle  wheels,  and  then  the  quarter  deck, 
with  a  large  company  of  tourists,  most  of  whom 
were  looking  about  very  eagerly  at  the  scenery, 
with  guide  books  and  glasses  in  their  hands. 
These  were  tourists  that  had  been  travelling  in 
Switzerland,  and  were  coming  home  by  way  of 
the  Rhine  ;  and  as  they  were  now  just  entering 
the  part  of  the  river  where  the  grand  and  impos- 
ing scenery  was  to  be  seen,  —  though  Mr.  G  eorge 
and  Rollo  were  just  leaving  it,  —  they  were  full 
of  wonder  and  admiration  at  the  various  objects 
which  appeared  around  them  on  every  side. 
Rollo  had  but  a  very  brief  opportunity  to  look 
at  these  strangers,  for  the  steamer  which  con- 
veyed them  passed  by  very  swiftly,  and  in  a 
moment  they  were  gone. 

"  How  swift !  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  they  go  down  the 


Dinner.  177 

Doos  the  current  of  a  river  hinder  navigation,  or  help  it? 

stream  much  faster  than  they  go  up  ;  for  in 
going  down  they  have  the  current  to  help  them, 
but  we  have  it  to  hinder  us  in  going  up." 

"  And  does  it  help  just  as  much  as  it  hinders  ?  " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  for  any  given  time. 
If  the  current  flows  two  miles  an  hour,  it  will 
carry  forward  a  boat  that  is  going  with  it  just 
two  miles  faster  than  it  would  go  in  still  water. 
And  if  the  boat  is  going  against  it,  it  will  go 
just  two  miles  an  hour  slower. 

"  Thus,  you  see,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  if  a 
steamer  had  an  engine  capable  of  driving  her 
twelve  miles  an  hour  through  the  water,  in  navi- 
gating a  stream  that  flows  two  miles  an  hour,  she 
would  go  fourteen  miles  an  hour  in  going  down, 
and  ten  miles  an  hour  in  going  up." 

"  Then,"  said  Rollo,  "  it  seems  that  the  help  of 
a  current  is  just  as  much  as  the  hinderance  of  it, 
and  that  a  river  running  fast  is  just  as  good  for 
navigation  as  if  the  water  were  still.  Because, 
you  see,"  he  added,  "  that  though  they  lose  some 
headway  in  going  up,  they  gain  it  just  the  same 
in  coming  down." 

"  That  reasoning  seems  plausible,"  replied  Mr. 
George,  "  but  it  is  not  sound." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  plausible  ? "  asked 
Rollo. 

12 


178  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Mr.  George's  calculation  of  the  effect  of  the  current. 

"  Why,  it  appears  to  be  good,  when  it  really  is 
not  so.  Reasoning  very  often  appears  to  be 
good,  while  there  is  all  the  time  some  latent  flaw 
in  it  which  makes  the  conclusion  wrong.  Verv 
often  something  is  left  out  of  the  account  which 
ought  to  be  taken  in  and  calculated  for,  and  that 
is  the  case  here.  The  truth  is,  that  the  current 
helps  the  steamer  in  going  down  just  as  much  as 
it  retards  her  in  coming  up  for  any  given  time  ; 
as  for  instance,  for  an  hour,  or  for  six  hours.  But 
we  are  to  consider  that  in  accomplishing  any 
given  distance,  the  steamer  is  longer  in  coming  up 
than  she  is  in  going  down,  and  so  is  exposed  to 
the  retarding  effect  of  the  current  longer  than 
she  has  the  benefit  of  its  cooperation. 

"  For  example,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "  sup- 
pose the  distance  from  one  place  to  another,  on  a 
river  flowing  two  miles  an  hour,  is  such  that  it 
takes  a  steamer  three  hours  to  go  clown  and  four 
hours  to  come  up.  In  going  down  she  would  be 
aided  how  much  ?  " 

"  Two  miles  an  hour,"  said  Rollo". 

"  And  that  makes  how  much  for  the  whole 
time  going  down  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Six  miles,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Now,  it  takes  her  four  hours  to  go  up,"  said 
Mr.  George.  "  How  much  would  she  be  kept 
back  then  by  the  current  ?  " 


Dinner.  1 79 

Sieamers  atid  rafts.  There  is  much  to  come  dou  n  —  little  to  go  up. 

"  Why,  two  miles  an  hour  fox  four  hours,"  said 
Rollo,  "  which  would  make  eight  miles." 

"  Thus  in  the  double  voyage,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  the  boat  would  be  helped  six  miles  and  hindered 
eight,  so  that  the  current  would  on  the  whole  be 
a  serious  disadvantage.  For  a  steamer,  there- 
fore, which  is  to  be  navigated  equally  both  ways, 
the  current  is  an  evil. 

"  But  for  that  sort  of  navigation  which  goes 
only  one  way,  it  is  a  great  advantage.  For  in- 
stance, the  rafts  have  to  come  down,  but  they 
never  have  to  go  back  again  ;  and  so  they  have 
the  whole  advantage  of  the  current  in  bringing 
them  down,  without  any  disadvantage  to  bal- 
ance it. 

"  On  the  whole,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  do  not 
see  but  that  the  currents  of  great  rivers  are  an 
advantage,  for  there  is  always  a  much  greater 
quantity  to  come  down  than  to  go  up.  The 
heavy  products  that  grow  on  the  borders  of  the 
rivers  are  to  come  down,  while  comparatively 
little  in  quantity  goes  up.  So  the  benefit,  on  the 
whole,  which  is  produced  by  the  flow  of  the 
water,  may  be  greater  than  the  injury." 

"  What  do  they  do  with  the  rafts,"  said  Rollo, 
"  when  they  get  them  down  the  river  ?  " 

"They  break  them  up,"  said  Mr.  George, 
u  and  sell  the  timber  in  the  countries  near  the 


180  ROLLO     ON     THE      RHINE. 

The  end  of  the  dinner  on  the  steamboat 

mouth  of  the  river,  where  but  little  timber 
grows." 

By  this  time,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had 
finished  eating  the  meats  which  they  had  ordered 
for  their  dinner,  and  so  the  waiter  came  and  took 
away  the  plates,  and  brought  the  omelet  and  the 
coffee.  With  the  coffee  the  waiter  brought  two 
small  plates  and  knives,  and  some  very  nice  rolls 
and  butter.  He  also  brought  a  plate  containing 
several  slices  of  a  kind  of  cake,  toasted.  This 
cake  was  very  nice. 

While  Rollo  was  eating  it  he  asked  his  uncle 
George  whether,  in  case  he  had  gone  down  the 
river  to  Boppard,  and  had  not  got  back  until  dark, 
he  should  not  have  been  anxious  about  him. 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  not  much.  I  took 
precautions  against  that." 

"  What  precautions  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  Why,  I  sent  a  man  with  you  to  take  care  of 
you,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  You  sent  a  man  with  me  ?  "  repeated  Rollo, 
very  much  surprised. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  quietly.  "  As  soon 
as  you  had  gone  out  of  my  room,  to  go  on  board 
the  raft,  I  called  the  waiter,  and  asked  him  to 
send  a  commissioner  with  you,  to  see  that  you  did 
not  get  into  any  difficulty,  and  to  take  care  of 
you  in  case  there  should  be  any  occasion." 


Dinner.  181 

RoHo  complains  that  it  was  not  fair  to  send  a  commissioner  to  watch  him. 

"Now,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  in  a  mourn- 
ful and  complaining  tone,  "  that  was  not  fair." 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Mr.  George. 

"  Because,"  said  Rollo,  "  I  wanted  to  take  care 
of  myself." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  you  did  take  care 
of  yourself —  didn't  you  ?  My  plan  did  not  inter- 
fere with  yours  at  all  —  did  it  ?  " 

Rollo  did  not  answer,  but  he  ooked  as  if  he 
were  not  convinced. 

"  I  gave  the  man  special  charge,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "  not  to  interfere  with  you  in  any  way, 
and  not  even  to  let  you  know  that  I  had  said 
any  thing  about  you  to  him,  so  that  you  should 
be  left  entirely  to  your  own  resources.  And  you 
were  so  left.  You  acted  in  the  whole  affair  just 
as  you  thought  proper,  and  took  care  of  yourself 
admirably  well.  I  think  especially  that  you  were 
very  wise  in  leaving  the  raft  when  you  did, 
instead  of  remaining  on  board  three  or  four 
hours  longer.  But  however  this  may  be,  you 
acted  for  yourself  throughout.  I  did  not  inter- 
fere with  you  at  all." 

"  Well,"  said  Rollo,  after  a  moment's  pause, 
"  what  you  say  is  very  true.  But  it  seems  to 
me  it  was  a  little  artful  in  you  to  do  that ; 
and  you  always  tell  me  that  I  must  not  be  art- 
ful, but  must  be  perfectly  honest  and  open  in 


182  ROLLO      ON     THE.    RHINE. 

Did  Mr.  George  do  right  to  conceal  the  commissioner's  errand  from  Rollof 

all  that  I  do.  Don't  you  think  you  deceived 
me  a  little  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  see  that  I  did,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"  When  we  deceive  a  person,  we  do  it  by  saying 
or  doing  something  to  give  him  a  false  impres- 
sion, or  to  make  him  suppose  that  something  is 
true  which  is  not  true.  Now,  what  did  I  do  or 
say  to  give  you  any  false  impression  ?  " 

"  Why,  nothing,  I  suppose,"  said  Rollo,  "  except 
sending  that  man  to  take  care  of  me  without 
letting  me  know  it." 

"  That  was  concealing  something  from  you," 
said  Mr.  George,  "  uot  deceiving  you.  There 
are  a  thousand  occasions  when  it  is  right  to  con- 
ceal things  from  the  people  around  us.  That  is 
very  different  from  deceiving  them.  This  was  a 
case  in  which  I  thought  it  best  to  conceal  what  I 
did,  for  a  time,  though  I  intended  to  tell  you  in 
the  end.  You  see,  I  should  not  have  done  my 
duty,  as  a  guardian  intrusted  with  the  care  of  a 
boy  by  his  father,  if  I  had  allowed  you  to  go 
away  from  me  on  such  a  doubtful  expedition 
without  some  precautions.  So  I  thought  it  best 
to  send  the  commissioner  ;  but  I  knew  you  wished 
to  take  care  of  yourself,  and  so  I  charged  the 
commissioner  to  allow  you  to  do  so,  and  on  no 
account  to  interpose,  unless  some  accident,  or  un- 
foreseen emergency,  should  occur.    I  told  him  not 


Dinner.  183 

Mr.  George  in  turn  complains.  Hollo's  fine. 

even  to  let  you  know  that  he  was  there,  so  that 
you  might  not  be  embarrassed  or  restricted  at 
all  by  his  presence,  or  even  relieved  of  any  por- 
tion of  your  solicitude.  But  I  determined  to  tell 
you  all  about  it  as  soon  as  it  was  over,  and  I 
was  fondly  imagining  that  you  would  praise  me 
for  my  sagacity  in  managing  the  business  as  1 
did,  and  also  especially  for  my  openness  and 
honesty  in  explaining  all  to  you  at  last.  But  in- 
stead of  that,  it  seems  you  think  I  did  wrong  ; 
bo  that  where  I  expected  compliments  and  praise, 
I  get  only  censure  and  condemnation  ;  and  I  do 
not  know  what  I  shall  do." 

Mr.  George  said  this  with  a  perfectly  grave 
face,  and  with  such  a  tone  of  mock  meekness 
and  despondency,  that  Rollo  burst  into  a  loud 
laugh. 

"  If  you  could  think  of  any  suitable  punish- 
ment for  me,"  continued  Mr.  George,  in  the  same 
penitent  tone,  "I  would  submit  to  it  very  con- 
tentedly ;  though  I  do  not  see  myself  any  suitable 
way  by  which  I  can  be  punished,  except  perhaps 
by  a  fine." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  a  fine ;  you  shall  be 
fined,  uncle  George.  There  is  a  woman  out  here 
that  has  got  some  raspberries,  in  little  paper 
oaskets.  You  shall  be  fined  a  paper  of  rasj* 
berries." 


184 


HOLLO     ON     THE     RHINi 


The  basket  of  raspberries. 


Mr.  George  acceded  to  this  proposal.  The 
raspberries  were  two  groschen  a  basket.  Mr. 
George  gave  Rollo  the  money,  and  Rollo,  going 
forward  with  it,  bought  the  raspberries,  and  he 
and  Mr.  George  ate  them  up  together.  They 
served  the  double  purpose  of  a  punishment  for 
the  offence,  and  of  a  dessert  for  the  dinner. 


Bin  gen.  185 

The  piers  on  the  Rhine  are  not  solid,  but  floating  piers. 


Chapter    XIII. 

BlNGEN. 

At  some  places  on  the  Rhine  the  passengers 
go  on  board  the  steamers  and  land  from  them  in 
a  small  boat,  as  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  did  at  St. 
Goar.  At  others  there  is  a  regular  pier  for  a 
landing.  At  all  the  large  towns  there  is  a  pier, 
—  in  some  there  are  two  or  three,  —  which  be- 
long severally  to  the  different  companies  which 
own  the  lines  of  steamers.  These  piers  are  con- 
structed in  a  very  peculiar  manner.  They  are 
made  by  means  of  a  large  and  heavy  boat,  which 
is  anchored  at  a  short  distance  from  the  shore, 
and  then  a  massive  platform  is  built,  extending 
from  the  quay  to  this  boat.  The  boat,  being 
afloat,  rises  and  falls  with  the  river  ;  and  thus  the 
end  of  the  platform  which  rests  upon  it  is  kept 
always  at  the  proper  level  for  the  landing  of  the 
passengers,  so  that,  whatever  may  be  the  state  of 
the  water,  they  go  over  on  a  level  plank.  Thia 
is  a  very  convenient  arrangement  for  such  a  river 
as  the  Rhine,  which  rises  and  falls  considerably 


186  R  0  L  L  0     ON     THE      R  II  I  X  E . 

The  appearance  of  Bingen. 

at  different  seasons,  on  account  of  the  variation 
in  the  quantity  of  rain,  and  in  the  melting  of  the 
snows,  on  the  mountains  in  Switzerland. 

Bingen  is  one  of  the  towns  where  there  is  a 
floating  pier  of  this  kind,  and  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  were  safely  landed  upon  it  about  eight 
o'clock.  It  was  a  very  pleasant  evening.  As 
they  approached  the  town,  before  they  landed, 
they  both  walked  forward  towards  the  bows  of 
the  vessel,  to  see  what  sort  of  a  place  it  was 
where  they  were  going  to  spend  the  night. 

"  It  is  just  like  Coblenz,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  only  on  a  small  scale." 

It  was  indeed  very  much  like  Coblenz  in  its 
situation,  for  it  was  built  on  a  point  of  land 
formed  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Nahe.  a 
branch  which  came  in  here  from  the  westward, 
just  as  Coblenz  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Rhine 
and  the  Moselle.  There  was  a  bridge  across  the 
Moselle,  you  recollect,  just  at  the  mouth  of  it,  on 
the  lower  side  of  the  town,  which  bridge  was 
made  to  accommodate  the  travellers  going  up 
and  down  the  Rhine  on  that  side.  There  was 
just  such  a  bridge  across  the  mouth  of  the  Nahe. 
So  that  the  situation  of  the  town  was  in  all  re- 
spects very  similar  to  that  of  Coblenz. 

Just  below  the  town  there  was  a  small  greet 
island  covered  with  shrubbery,  and  on  the  uppe: 


BlNGEN.  187 

Bishop  Hatto's  Tower,  and  its  legend. 

end  of  the  island  was  a  high,  square  tower,  stand 
ing  alone. 

"  That's  must  be  Bishop  Hatto's  Tower,"  said 
Mr.  George. 

"  Who  was  he  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  He  was  a  man  that  was  eaten  up  by  the 
rats,"  said  Mr.  George,  "because  he  called  the 
poor  people  rats,  and  burned  up  a  great  many  of 
them  in  his  barn.  The  story  is  in  the  guide 
book.  I  will  read  it  to  you  when  we  get  to  the 
hotel." 

By  this  time  the  boat  had  glided  by  the  island, 
and  the  tower  was  out  of  view ;  and  very  soon 
afterwards  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  landed 
on  the  floating  pier,  as  I  have  already  said. 
There  were  very  few  people  to  land,  and  the  boat 
seemed  merely  to  touch  the  pier  and  then  to 
glide  away  again. 

There  were  several  porters  standing  by,  and 
they  immediately  took  up  the  passengers'  bag- 
gage, and  carried  it  away  to  the  hotels,  which 
were  all  very  near  the  river.  Rollo  and  Mr. 
George  were  soon  comfortably  established  in  a 
room  with  two  beds  in  it,  one  in  each  corner,  and 
a  large  round  table  near  one  of  the  windows. 
Outside  of  the  other  window  was  a  balcony, 
and  Rollo  immediately  went  out  there,  to  look 
at  the  view. 


188  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  II  I  N  E  . 

The  scenery  at  Bingen.  Vineyards.  Watchtowers. 

"  We  have  not  got  quite  out  jet,  uncle  George," 
said  he. 

Rollo  was  right,  for  the  bank  of  the  river  op« 
posite  Bingen  was  very  steep  and  high,  and  was 
terraced  from  top  to  bottom  for  vineyards.  In 
fact,  this  part  of  the  river  is  more  celebrated, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  for  the  excellent  quality 
of  the  grapes  which  it  produces.  It  is  here  that 
are  situated  the  famous  vineyards  of  Rudesheim 
and  Johannisberg.  In  fact,  the  whole  country, 
for  miles  in  extent,  is  one  vast  vineyard.  The 
separate  fields  are  divided  from  one  another  by 
the  terrace  walls,  which  run  parallel  to  the  river, 
and  by  paths  formed  sometimes  by  steps,  and 
sometimes  by  zigzags,  which  ascend  and  descend 
from  the  crest  of  the  hills  above  to  the  line  of 
the  shore.  The  only  buildings  to  be  seen  among 
all  this  vast  expanse  of  walls  and  terraces  are 
the  little  watchtowers  that  are  erected  here  and 
there  at  commanding  points  to  enable  the  vine- 
growers  to  watch  the  fruit,  when  it  comes  to  the 
time  of  ripening.  The  laborers  who  till  the  fields, 
and  dress  the  vines,  and  gather  the  grapes  in  the 
season,  live  all  of  them  in  compact  villages,  built 
at  intervals  along  the  shore. 

While  Rollo  was  looking  at  this  scene,  and 
wondering  how  such  an  immense  number  of  walls 
and   terraces   could   ever   have   been   built    his 


BlNGEN.  189 

Minnie  pn  the  balcony. 


attention  was  suddenly  arrested  by  hearing  a 
sweet  and  silvery  voice,  like  that  of  a  girl, 
calling  out,  — 

"  Rollo." 

Rollo  turned  in  the  direction  of  the  sound, 
and  found  that  it  was  Minnie  speaking  to  him. 
She  was  standing  on  another  balcony,  one  which 
opened  from  the  chamber  next  to  his.  Rollo 
was  very  much  pleased  to  see  her.  He  thought 
it  very  remarkable  that  he  should  meet  her  thus 
so  many  times ;  but  it  was  not.  Travellers  on 
the  Rhine  going  in  the  same  direction,  and  stop- 
ping to  see  the  same  things,  often  meet  each  other 
in  this  way  again  and  again. 

After  talking  with  Minnie  some  little  time 
from  the  balcony,  Rollo  asked  her  if  her  mother 
was  there. 

"  Yes/'  said  Minnie. 

"  Ask  her  then,"  said  Rollo,  "  if  you  may 
come  down  and  take  a  walk  with  me  in  the 
garden." 

Minnie  went  in  from  the  balcony,  and  in  a 
moment  returning,  she  said,  ;'  Yes,"  and  immedi- 
ately disappeared  again.  So  Rollo  went  down, 
and  Minnie  presently  came  and  met  him  in  the 
garden. 

The  garden  was  a  small  piece  of  ground  in 
front  of  the   hotel,  between  the  hotel    aud   the 


190  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 


Hollo  and  Minnie  in  the  garden. 


river.    There  was  a  large  gate  opening  from  it 
towards  the  hotel,  and  another  toward?  the  river 


BlNGEN.  191 

A  description  j(  the  hotel  garden  at  Bingen. 

The  garden  was  full  of  shade  trees,  with  pleasant 
walks  winding  about  among  them,  and  here  and 
there  a  border,  or  a  bed  of  flowers.  There  were 
several  carved  images  placed  here  and  there,  one 
of  which  amused  Rollo  and  Minnie  very  much, 
for  it  represented  a  monkey  sitting  on  a  polo 
and  looking  at  himself  in  a  hand  looking  glass 
which  he  held  before  his  face.  In  the  other  hand 
he  had  a  parasol. 

In  the  front  part  of  the  garden,  towards  the 
river,  were  several  tables  under  the  trees,  where 
people  might  take  coffee  or  ices,  or  they  might 
take  their  dinner  there  if  they  chose.  In  the 
front  of  the  garden  too,  at  the  corners,  were  two 
summer  houses,  with  tables  and  chairs  in  them. 
The  sides  of  these  houses  that  were  turned 
towards  the  river,  and  also  those  that  were 
towards  the  gardens,  were  open.  The  other  two 
sides  of  each  summer  house  had  walls,  on  which 
were  painted  views  of  castles  and  other  sce- 
nery of  the  Rhine.  Over  one  of  the  summer 
houses  was  a  little  room  for  a  lookout,  where 
there  was  a  very  fine  prospect  up  and  down  the 
river. 

"Rollo  and  Minnie  rambled  about  here  ior  some 
time,  examining  every  thing  with  great  attention . 
They  chose  one  of  the  pleasantest  tables,  and  sat 
down  before  it. 


192  RoLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Minnie's  plan  for  breakfast.  She  wants  to  take  a  sail. 

"  This  is  a  nice  place,"  said  Minnie.  "  1 
propose  that  you  and  I  come  out  here  to* 
morrow  morning  and  have  breakfast,  all  by  our- 
selves." 

"  0,  we  can't  do  that  very  well,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes  we  can,"  replied  Minnie,  "just  as  well 
as  not.     I'll  plan  it  all." 

Minnie  then  jumped  up  and  led  the  way, 
Rollo  following,  through  the  open  gate  towards 
the  river.  There  was  a  sort  of  street  outside, 
and  Rollo  and  Minnie  stood  here  for  a  few  min- 
utes to  see  a  steamer  go  by.  Minnie  then  pro- 
posed that  they  should  get  into  a  boat  that  was 
lying  there,  and  take  a  sail. 

"  You  can  row  —  can't  you  ?  "  said  she  to 
Rollo. 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "  not  on  such  a  river  as 
this.     See  how  swift  the  current  flows." 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Minnie,  "  I  can.  Let 
us  jump  into  this  boat,  and  have  a  sail." 

"No,"  said  Rollo,  "not  for  the, world.  We 
should  be  carried  off  down  the  stream  in  spite 
of  every  thing." 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Minnie  ;  "  we  should  land 
somewhere,  and  they  would  send  down  for  us. 
We  should  have  a  great  deal  of  fun." 

How  far  Minnie  would  have  persevered  in 
urging  her  plan   for  a  venture  in  the  "boat  on 


H  [  N  G  E  N 


lfla 


Mr.  George  joins  the  children. 


the  river  I  do  not  know  ;  but  the  conversation 
was  here  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  Mr. 
George,  who  had  come  down  through  the  gar- 
den, and  just  at  this  instant  joined  the  children 
on  the  quay. 


19 1  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 


The  two  ruins  at  Bingen. 


Chapter    XIV. 

The   Ruin    in    the    Garden. 

Mr.  George  said  that  he  had  come  to  ask 
Rollo  to  go  and  take  a  walk  to  see  an  old  ruin 
in  the  town,  and  he  told  Minnie  that  he  should 
be  very  glad  to  have  her  go  too,  if  her  mother 
would  be  willing. 

"  0,  yes,"  said  Minnie,  "  she  will  be  willing. 
I'll  go." 

"  You  must  go  and  ask  her  first,"  said  Mr. 
George. 

So,  while  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  walked  slowly 
up  towards  the  hotel,  Minnie  ran  before  them  to 
ask  her  mother. 

Mr.  George  explained  to  Rollo"  in  walking 
through  the  garden,  that  there  were  two  ruina 
that  he  wished  to  see  while  he  was  at  Bingen. 
One  was  the  famous  castle  of  Rheinstein,  which 
stood  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  a  few  miles  be- 
low the  town. 

"  But  it  is  too  late  to  go  there  to-night,"  said 
Mr.  George.    "  We  will  take  that  for  to-morrow 


The    Ruin    in    the    Garden.     195 

Mr.  George  and  the  children  trying  to  find  their  way  to  the  rums. 

But  there  is  an  old  ruin  back  here  in  the  village, 
which  I  think  we  can  see  to-night." 

When  they  reached  the  door  of  the  hotel, 
Minnie  met  them,  and  said  that  she  could  go  ; 
and  so  they  walked  along  together. 

Mr.  George  groped  about  a  long  time  among 
the  narrow  streets  and  passage  ways  of  the 
town,  to  find  some  way  of  access  to  the  ruin, 
but  in  vain.  He  obtained  frequent  views  of  it, 
and  of  the  rocky  hill  that  it  stood  upon,  which 
was  seen  here  and  there,  by  chance  glimpses, 
rising  in  massive  grandeur  above  the  houses  of 
the  town  ;  but  he  could  not  find  any  way  to 
get  to  it. 

"  It  is  in  a  private  garden,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"  I  know  ;  but  how  to  find  the  way  to  it  I  can- 
not imagine." 

"  Perhaps  it  is  here,"  said  Minnie. 

So  saying,  Minnie  ran  up  to  a  gate  by  the  side 
of  the  street,  which  led  into  a  very  pretty  yard, 
all  shaded  with  trees  and  shrubbery,  and  having 
a  large  and  handsome  house  by  the  side  of  it. 
The  gate  was  shut  and  fastened,  but  Minnie  could 
look  through  the  bars. 

There  was  a  woman  standing  near  one  of  the 
doors  of  the  house,  and  Minnie  beckoned  to  her. 
The  woman  came  immediately  down  towards  the 
gate.     Minnie  pointed  in  towards  a  walk  which 


196  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Admission  to  the  garden.  An  unintelligible  guide* 

seemed  to  lead  back  among  the  trees,  and  said 
to  the  woman,  — 

"  Schloss  ?  " 

Schloss  is  the  German  word  for  castle.  Minnie 
could  not  speak  German ;  but  she  knew  some 
words  of  that  language,  and  the  words  that  she 
did  know  she  was  always  perfectly  ready  to  use, 
whenever  an  occasion  presented. 

"  Ja,  Ja"  said  the  woman  ;  and  immediately 
she  opened  the  gate.  By  this  time  Minnie  had 
beckoned  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  to  come  up 
from  the  road,  and  they  all  three  went  in  through 
the  gate. 

The  woman  called  to  a  man  who  was  then 
just  coming  down  out  of  the  garden,  and  said 
something  to  him  in  German.  None  of  our  party 
could  understand  what  she  said ;  but  they  knew 
from  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  from  her 
actions,  that  she  was  saying  to  him  that  the 
strangers  wished  to  see  the  ruins.  So,  the  man 
leading  the  way,  and  the  three  visitors  following 
him,  they  all  went  on  along  a  broad  gravel  walk 
which  led  up  into  the  garden. 

Mr.  George  asked  the  guide  if  he  could  speak 
English,  and  he  said,  "  Nein."  Then  he  asked 
him  if  he  could  speak  French,  and  he  said, 
" Nein"    He  said  he  could  only  speak  German. 

"  He  can't  explain  any  thing  to  us,  children,' 


The    Ruin    in    the    Garden.     197 


The  sombre  aspect  of  the  ruins.  .The  grated  window. 

said  Mr.  George  ;  "  we  shall  have  to  judge  for 
ourselves." 

The  walk  was  very  shady  that  led  along  the 
garden,  and  as  it  was  now  long  past  eight  o'clock, 
it  was  nearly  dark  walking  there,  though  it  was 
still  pretty  light  under  the  open  sky.  The  walk 
gradually  ascended,  and  it  soon  brought  the  party 
to  a  place  where  they  could  see,  rising  up  among 
the  trees,  fragments  of  ancient  walls  of  stupen- 
dous height.  Rollo  looked  up  to  them  with 
wonder.  He  even  felt  a  degree  of  awe,  as  well 
as  wonder,  for  the  strange  and  uncouth  forms  of 
windows  and  doors,  which  were  seen  here  and 
there  ;  the  embrasures,  and  the  yawning  arches 
which  appeared  below,  leading  apparently  to  sub- 
terranean dungeons,  being  all  dimly  seen  in  the 
obscurity  of  the  night,  suggested  to  his  mind 
ideas  of  prisoners  confined  there  in  ancient  times, 
and  wearing  out  their  lives  in  a  dreadful  and 
hopeless  captivity,  or  being  put  to  death  by 
horrid  tortures. 

Minnie  was  still  more  afraid  of  these  gloomy 
remains  than  Rollo.  She  was  afraid  to  look  up 
at  them. 

"  Look  up  there,  Minnie,"  said  Rollo.  "  See  that 
old  broken  window  with  iron  gratings  in  the  walls." 

"  No,"  replied  Minnie,  "  I  do  not  want  to  see  it 
at  all." 


198  R  0  L  L  0      ON     THE     RHINE. 

Climbing  up  to  the  old  castle.    Entering.    The  feelings  of  the  travellers 

So  saying  she  looked  straight  down  upon  the 
path  before  her,  and  walked  on  as  fast  aa 
possible. 

"  If  I  should  look  up  there,  I  should  see  some 
dreadful  thing  mowing  and  chowing  at  me,"  she 
added. 

Rollo  laughed,  and  they  all  walked  on. 

Presently  the  path  began  to  ascend  more 
rapidly,  and  soon  it  brought  the  whole  party  out 
into  the  light,  on  the  slope  of  an  elevation  which 
was  covered  with  the  main  body  of  the  ruined 
castle.  The  man  led  the  way  up  a  steep  path, 
and  then  up  a  flight  of  ancient  stone  steps  built 
against  a  wall,  until  he  came  to  an  iron  gateway. 
This  he  unlocked,  and  the  whole  party  went  in, 
or  rather  went  through,  for  as  the  roofs  were 
gone  from  the  ruins,  they  were  almost  as  much 
out  of  doors  after  passing  through  the  gateway 
as  they  were  before. 

Mr.  George  and  the  children  gazed  around 
upon  the  confused  mass  of  ruined  bastions,  towers, 
battlements,  and  archways,  that  lay  before  them, 
with  a  feeling  of  awe  which  it  is  impossible  to 
describe.  The  grass  waved  and  flowers  bloomed 
on  the  tops  of  the  walls,  on  the  sills  of  the 
windows,  and  on  every  projecting  cornice,  or 
angle,  where  a  seed  could  have  lodged.  In 
many  places  thick  clusters  of  herbage  were  seen 


The    Ruin    in   the    Garden.    191) 

The  tower  remaining.  Its  interior.  Antique  carving 

growing  luxuriantly  from  crumbling  interstices 
of  the  stones  in  the  perpendicular  face  of  the 
masonry,  fifty  feet  from  the  ground.  Large  trees 
were  growing  on  what  had  formerly  been  the 
floors  of  the  halls,  or  of  the  chambers,  and  tall 
grass  waved  there,  ready  for  the  scythe. 

There  was  one  tower  which  still  had  a  roof 
upon  it.  A  steep  flight  of  stone  steps  led  up  to 
a  door  in  this  tower.  The  door  was  under  a 
deep  archway.  The  guide  led  the  way  up  this 
stairway,  and  unlocking  the  door,  admitted  his 
party  into  the  tower. 

They  found  themselves,  when  they  had  entered, 
in  a  small,  square  room.  It  occupied  the  whole 
extent  of  the  tower  on  that  story,  and  yet  it  was 
very  small.  This  room  was  in  good  condition, 
having  been  carefully  preserved,  and  was  now 
the  only  remaining  room  of  the  whole  castle 
which  was  not  dismantled  and  in  ruins.  But 
this  room,  though  still  shut  in  from  the  weather, 
and  protected  in  a  measure  from  further  decay, 
presented  an  appearance  of  age  wholly  inde- 
scribable. The  door  where  the  party  had  come 
in  was  on  one  side  of  it,  and  there  was  a  window 
on  the  opposite  side,  leading  out  to  a  little  stone 
balcony.  On  the  other  two  sides  were  two  an- 
tique cabinets  of  carved  oak,  most  aged  and  ven- 
erable  in   appearance,  and  of  the  most  quaint 


2UU  ROLLO     ON     THE     R  H  I  N  E 


The  trap  door.  Prison.  Minnie  does  not  liae  ruina. 

construction.  The  walls  and  the  floor  were  ot 
stone.  In  the  middle  of  the  floor,  however,  was 
a  heavy  trap  door.  The  guide  lifted  up  this 
door  by  means  of  a  ponderous  ring  of  rusty  iron, 
and  let  Mr.  George  and  the  children  look  down. 
It  was  a  dark  and  dismal  dungeon. 

" Prison"  said  the  guide. 

This,  it  seemed,  was  the  only  English  word  that 
he  could  speak. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  speaking  to  Rollo 
and  Minnie.  "  He  means  that  this  was  the  prison 
of  the  castle." 

The  guide  shut  down  the  trap  door,  and  the 
children,  after  gazing  around  upon  the  room 
a  few  minutes  longer,  were  glad  to  go  away. 

Just  before  reaching  the  hotel  on  their  way 
home,  Rollo  told  Minnie  that  he  and  Mr.  George 
were  going  down  the  next  day  to  see  Rheinstein, 
a  beautiful  castle  down  the  river,  and  he  asked 
her  if  she  would  not  like  to  go  too. 

Mr.  George  was  walking  on  before  them  at 
this  time,  and  he  did  not  hear  this  conversation. 

"No,"  said  Minnie,  "I  believe  not.  It  makes 
me  afraid  to  go  and  see  these  old  ruins." 

"  But  this  one  that  we  are  going  to  see  is  not 
an  old  ruin,"  said  Rollo.  "  It  has  been  all  made 
over  again  as  good  as  new,  and  is  full  of  beauti- 
ful  rooms   and   beautiful  furniture.     Besides,  it 


The    Ruin    in    the    Garden.     201 

Minnie's  inconsistency 

stands  out  in  a  good  clear  place  on  the  bank 
of  the  river,  and  you  will  not  be  afraid  at  all. 
I  mean  to  ask  uncle  George  if  I  may  ask  you 
to  go." 

That  evening,  in  reflecting  on  the  adventures 
of  the  day,  Rollo  wondered  that  Minnie,  who 
seemed  to  have  so  much  courage  about  going  out 
in  a  boat  on  the  -water,  and  in  clambering  about 
into  all  sorts  of  dangerous  places,  should  be  so 
afraid  of  old  ruins  ;  but  the  fact  is,  that  people 
are  in  nothing  more  inconsistent  than  in  their 
fears. 


202  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

Tho  invitation  to  Minnie.  Mr.  George's  permission. 


Chapter    XV. 
Rheinstein. 

Rollo  determined  to  ask  his  uncle  George  at 
breakfast  if  he  might  invite  Minnie  to  accompany 
them  on  their  visit  to  the  castle  of  Rheinstein. 
He  was  sorry,  however,  when  he  came  to  reflect 
a  little,  that  he  had  not  first  asked  his  uncle 
George,  before  mentioning  the  subject  to  Minnie 
at  all. 

"  For,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  if  there  should  be 
any  difficulty  or  objection  to  prevent  her  going 
with  us,  then  I  shall  have  to  go  and  tell  her 
that  I  can't  invite  her,  after  all  ;  and  that 
would  be  worse  than  not  to  have  said  any  thing 
about  it." 

When,  at  length,  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were 
seated  at  table  at  breakfast,  Rollo  asked  his 
uncle  if  he  was  willing  that  Minnie  should  go 
with  them  to  the  castle. 

"  I  told  her,"  said  he,  "  last  night,  that  we  were 
going,  and  I  said  I  intended  to  ask  you  if  she 
might  go  with  us.    But  I  thought  afterwards  that 


Rheinstein.  203 

Starting  for  Rheinstein.  Bishop  Hatto's  Tower  again. 

it  would  have  been  better  to  have  spoken  about 
it  to  you  first." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  that  would  be  much 
the  best  mode  generally,  though  in  this  case  it 
makes  no  difference,  for  I  shall  be  very  glad  to 
have  Minnie  go." 

So  Rollo  immediately  after  breakfast  went  to 
renew  his  invitation  to  Minnie,  and  about  an 
hour  afterwards  the  party  set  out  on  their  excur- 
sion. They  went  in  a  fine  open  barouche  with 
two  horses,  which  Mr.  George  selected  from  sev- 
eral that  were  standing  near  the  hotel,  waiting 
to  be  hired.  Mr.  George  took  the  back  seat,  and 
Rollo  and  Minnie  sat  together  on  the  front  seat. 
Thus  they  rode  through  the  streets  of  the  town, 
and  over  the  old  stone  bridge  which  led  across 
the  Nahe  near  its  junction  with  the  Rhine. 

From  the  bridge  Rollo  could  see  the  little  green 
island  on  which  stood  Bishop  Hatto's  Tower. 

"  There  is  Bishop  Hatto's  Tower,"  said  Rollo, 
M  and  you  promised,  uncle  George,  to  tell  me  the 
story  of  it." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  I  will  tell  it  to 
you  now." 

So  Mr.  George  began  to  relate  the  story  as 
follows :  — 

"  There  was  a  famine  coming  on  at  one  tim< 
during  Bishop  Hatto's  life,  and  the  people  were 


204         Rollo    on    ihi    Rhine. 

The  story  of  Bishop  Hatto  and  his  treatment  of  the  poor  people. 

becoming  very  destitute,  though  the  bishop's  gran 
aries  were  well  supplied  with  corn.  The  poor 
flocked  and  crowded  around  his  door.  At  last 
the  bishop  appointed  a  time  when,  he  told  them, 
they  should  have  food  for  the  winter,  if  they 
would  repair  to  his  great  barn.  Young  and  old, 
from  far  and  near,  did  so,  and  when  the  barn 
could  hold  no  more,  he  made  fast  the  door,  and 
set  fire  to  it,  and  burned  them  all.  He  then  re- 
turned to  his  palace,  congratulating  himself  that 
the  country  was  rid  of  the  '  rats,'  as  he  called 
them.  He  ate  a  good  supper,  went  to  bed,  and 
slept  like  an  innocent  man  ;  but  he  never  slept 
again.  In  the  morning,  when  he  entered  a  room 
where  hung  his  picture,  he  found  it  entirely  eaten 
by  rats.  Presently  a  man  came  and  told  him 
that  the  rats  had  entirely  consumed  his  corn  ;  and 
while  the  man  was  telling  him  this,  another  man 
came  running,  pale  as  death,  to  tell  him  that  ten 
thousand  rats  were  coming.  '  I'll  go  to  my 
tower  on  the  Rhine,'  said  the  bishop ;  '  'tis  the 
safest  place  in  Germany.'  He  immediately  has- 
tened to  the  shore,  and  crossed  to  his  tower,  and 
very  carefully  barred  all  the  doors  and  windows. 
After  he  had  retired  for  the  night,  he  had  hardly 
closed  his  eyes,  when  he  heard  a  fearful  scream. 
He  started  up,  and  saw  the  cat  sitting  by  his  pil- 
low, screaming  with  fear   of  the   army  of  rats 


Rheinstein.  205 

The  retribution.  The  army  of  rats 

that  were  approaching.  They  had  swum  over  the 
river,  climbed  the  shore,  and  were  scaling  the 
walls  of  his  tower  by  thousands.  The  bishop, 
half  dead  with  fright,  fell  on  his  knees,  and 
began  counting  his  beads.  The  rats  soon  gained 
the  room,  fell  upon  the  bishop,  and  in  a  short 
time  nothing  was  left  of  him  but  his  bones. 

"  There  is  an  account  of  it  in  poetry  too,  in 
my  book,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"  Read  it  to  us,"  said  Minnie. 

So  Mr.  George  opened  his  book,  and  rea  1  the 
account  in  poetry,  as  follows  :  — 

Bishop   H  atto. 

The  summer  and  autumn  had  been  so  wet, 
That  in  winter  the  corn  was  growing  yet ; 
'Twas  a  piteous  sight  to  see  all  around 
The  grain  lie  rotting  on  the  ground. 

Every  day  the  starving  poor 
Crowded  around  Bishop  Hatto's  door, 
For  he  had  a  plentiful  last  year's  store  ; 
And  all  the  neighborhood  could  tell 
His  granaries  were  furnished  well. 

At  last  Bishop  Hatto  appointed  a  day 

To  quiet  the  poor  without  delay  : 

He  bade  them  to  his  great  barn  repair, 

And  they  should  have  food  for  the  winter  there 

Rejoiced  at  such  tidings  good  to  hear, 
The  poor  folk  flocked  from  far  and  near : 
The  great  barn  was  full  as  it  could  hold 
Of  women  and  children,  and  young  and  old 


206  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  legend  of  Bishop  Hatto  in  verse. 

Then,  when  they  saw  it  could  hold  no  more, 
Bishop  Hatto  he  made  fast  the  door  ; 
And  while  for  mercy  on  Christ  they  call, 
He  set  fire  to  the  barn,  and  burned  them  all. 

-    "  I'  faith  'tis  an  excellent  bonfire !  "  quoth  he, 
"  And  the  country  is  greatly  obliged  to  me 
For  ridding  it,  in  these  times  forlorn, 
Of  rats  that  only  consume  the  corn." 

So  then  to  his  palace  returned  he, 

And  he  sat  down  to  supper  merrily, 

And  he  slept  that  night  like  an  innoeent  man ; 

But  Bishop  Hatto  never  slept  again. 

In  the  morning,  as  he  entered  the  hall 
Where  his  picture  hung  against  the  wall, 
A  sweat  like  death  all  o'er  him  came, 
For  the  rats  had  eaten  it  out  of  the  frame. 

As  he  looked  there  came  a  man  from  his  farm ; 
He  had  a  countenance  white  with  alarm. 
*'  My  lord,  I  opened  your  granaries  this  morn, 
And  the  rats  had  eaten  all  your  corn." 

Another  came  running  presently, 
And  he  was  pale  as  pale  could  be : 
"  Fly,  my  lord  bishop,  fly,"  quoth  he  ; 
"  Ten  thousand  rats  are  coming  this  way  ; 
The  Lord  forgive  you  for  yesterday." 

"I'll  go  to  my  tower  on  the  Rhine,"  replied  he, 
"  'lis  the  safest  place  in  Germany ; 
The  walls  are  high,  and  the  shores  are  steep, 
And  the  stream  is  strong,  and  the  water  deep." 

Bishop  Hatto  fearfully  hastened  away. 
And  he  crossed  the  Rhine  without  delay, 
And  reached  his  tower,  and  barred  with  caro 
All  the  windows,  doors,  and  loopholes  there. 


Rheinstein.  207 

What  Rolio  and  Minnie  thought  of  the  bishop's  punishment 

He  laid  him  down  and  closed  his  eyes ; 

But  soon  a  scream  made  him  arise. 

He  started,  and  saw  two  eyes  of  flame 

On  his  pillow,  from  whence  the  screaming  came. 

He  listened  and  looked :  it  was  only  the  cat : 
But  the  bishop  he  grew  more  fearful  for  that ; 
For  she  sat  screaming,  mad  with  fear 
At  the  army  of  rats  that  were  drawing  near. 

For  they  have  swum  over  the  river  so  deep, 
And  they  have  climbed  the  shores  so  steep, 
And  now  by  thousands  up  they  crawl 
To  the  holes  and  windows  in  the  wall. 

Down  on  his  knees  the  bishop  fell, 

And  faster  and  faster  his  beads  did  he  tell, 

As  louder  and  louder,  drawing  near, 

The  saw  of  their  teeth  without  he  cc  tld  hear. 

And  in  at  the  windows,  and  in  at  tie  door, 
And  through  the  walls  by  thousands  they  pour, 
And  down  through  the  ceiling  and  up  through  the  floor. 
From  the  right  and  the  left,  from  behind  and  before, 
From  within  and  without,  from  above  and  below ; 
And  all  at  once  at  the  bishop  they  go. 

They  have  whetted  their  teeth  against  the  stones, 
And  now  they  pick  the  bishop's  bones  ; 
They  gnawed  the  flesh  from  every  limb, 
For  they  were  sent  to  do  judgment  on  him. 

"  I'm  glad  they  ate  him  up,"  said  Minnie,  as 
soon  as  Mr.  George  had  finished  reading  the 
poetry.     "'  I  am  very  glad  indeed." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  so  am  I." 

'  What  a  pleasant  ride  this  is!"  said  Rollo 


208  ROLLO     ON     THE     RlIINE. 

The  scenery  on  the  waj  to  the  castle. 

after  a  little  pause.  It  was,  indeed,  a  delightful 
ride.  The  road  was  carried  along  the  bank  of 
the  river  a  short  distance  above  the  level  of  the 
water.  It  was  very  hard,  and  smooth,  and  level ; 
aud  on  the  side  of  it  opposite  to  the  water,  the 
land  rose  abruptly  in  a  steep  ascent,  which  was 
covered  with  forest  trees.  At  the  distance  of 
about  a  mile  before  them,  down  the  river,  they 
could  see  the  towers  and  battlements  of  the  cas- 
tle which  they  were  going  to  visit,  rising  among 
the  tops  of  the  trees,  on  a  projecting  promontory. 

"  I  like  the  ride  very  much,"  said  Rollo ;  "  but 
I  don't  care  much  about  the  castle.  I'm  tired 
of  castles." 

"  So  am  I,"  said  Mr.  George  ;  "  but  this  is  dif- 
ferent from  the  rest.     This  is  a  castle  restored." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  "  said  Rollo. 

"  Why,  nearly  all  the  old  castles  on  the  Rhine," 
replied  Mr.  George,  "  have  been  abandoned,  and 
have  gone  to  decay  ;  or  else,  if  they  have  been 
repaired  or  rebuilt,  they  have  beerLfinished  and 
furnished  in  the  fashion  of  modern  times.  But 
this  castle  of  Rheinstein,  which  we  are  now 
goiug  to  see,  has  been  restored,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible, to  its  ancient  condition.  The  rooms,  and 
the  courts,  and  the  towers,  and  battlements  are 
all  arranged  as  they  used  to  be  in  former  ages  ; 
and   the  furniture   contained   within  is  of  the 


Rhein  STEIN.  209 

The  castle  of  Rhemstein  is  a  castle  restored. 

ancient  fashion.  The  chairs,  and  tables,  and 
cabinets,  and  all  the  other  articles,  are  such  as 
the  barons  used  when  the  castles  on  the  Rhine 
were  inhabited." 

"  Where  do  they  get  such  things  nowadays  ?  " 
asked  Rollo. 

"  Some  of  the  furniture  which  they  have  in 
this  castle,"  said  Mr.  George,  "originally  be- 
longed there,  and  has  been  kept  there  all  the 
time,  for  hundreds  of  years.  When  they  repaired 
and  rebuilt  the  castle,  they  repaired  this  furniture 
too,  and  put  it  in  perfect  order.  Some  other 
furniture  they  bought  from  other  old  castles 
which  the  owners  did  not  intend  to  repair,  and 
some  they  had  made  new,  after  the  ancient 
patterns.  But  here  we  are,  close  under  the 
castle." 

A  few  minutes  after  this,  the  carriage  stopped 
in  the  road  at  the  entrance  to  a  broad,  gravelled 
pathway,  which  diverged  from  the  road  directly 
under  the  castle  walls,  and  began  to  ascend  at 
once  through  the  woods  in  zigzags.  Mr.  George 
and  his  party  got  out,  and  began  to  go  up.  The 
carriage,  in  the  mean  time,  went  on  a  few  steps 
farther,  to  a  smooth  and  level  place  by  the  road- 
side, under  the  shade  of  some  trees,  there  to 
await  the  return  of  the  party  from  their  visit  to 
the  castle  above. 


210  ROLLO     ON     THE     KhINE. 

Hard  climbing.  The  broken  cliff  chained  ujx 

"  Now,  children,"  said  Mr.  George,  "  we  will 
see  how  you  can  stand  hard  climbing." 

Rollo  and  Minnie  looked  up,  and  they  could 
?ee  the  walls  and  battlements  of  the  castle,  rest- 
ing upon  and  crowning  the  crags  and  precipices 
of  the  rock,  far  above  their  heads. 

The  road,  or  rather  the  pathway,  —  for  it  was 
not  wide  enough  for  a  carriage,  and  was  besides 
too  steep,  and  turned  too  many  sharp  corners  for 
wheels,  —  was  very  smooth  and  hard,  and  the 
children  ascended  it  without  any  difficulty.  They 
stopped  frequently  to  look  up,  for  at  every  turn 
there  was  some  new  view  of  the  walls  or  battle- 
ments, or  towers  above,  or  of  the  crags  and 
precipices  of  the  rock  on  which  the  various  con- 
structions of  masonry  rested.  The  cliffs  and 
precipices  in  many  places  overhung  the  path,  and 
seemed  ready  to  fall.  In  fact,  in  one  place,  an 
immense  mass  had  cracked  off,  and  was  all  ready 
to  come  down,  but  was  retained  in  its  place  by  a 
heavy  iron  chain,  which  passed  around  it,  and 
was  secured  by  clamps  and  staples  to  the  more 
solid  portion  of  the  rock  behind  it.  Rollo  and 
Minnie  looked  up  to  this  cliff,  as  they  passed 
beneath  it,  with  something  like  a  feeling  of 
terror. 

"  I  should  not  like  to  have  that  rock  come 
down  upon  our  heads,"  said  Minnie. 


R.HEIN  STEIN.  211 

The  servan:  at  the  castle  gate. 

"  No,"  said  Rollo,  "  nor  I ;  but  I  should  like 
to  see  it  come  down  if  we  were  out  of  the 
way." 

At  length  the  road,  after  many  winding  zig- 
zags and  convolutions,  came  out  upon  a  gravelled 
area  in  front  of  a  great  iron  gate  at  an  angle 
between  two  towers. 

A  man  came  from  a  courtyard  within,  and 
opened  a  small  gate,  which  formed  a  part  of  the 
great  one.  He  seemed  to  be  a  servant.  Mr. 
George  asked  him  in  French  if  they  could  come 
in  and  see  the  castle.  The  man  smiled  and 
shook  his  head,  but  at  the  same  time  opened  the 
loor  wide,  and  stood  on  one  side,  as  if  to  make 
way  for  them  to  come  in. 

"  He  says  no,"  whispered  Rollo. 

"  No,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "  his  no  means  that 
he  does  not  understand  us  ;  but  he  wishes  us  to 
come  in." 

As  Mr.  George  said  these  words,  he  passed 
through  the  gate,  leading  Minnie  by  the  hand, 
and  followed  by  Rollo. 

The  man  shut  the  gate  after  them,  and  then 
began  to  say  something  to  them,  very  fluently 
and  earnestly,  pointing  at  the  same  time  to  a 
door  which  opened  upon  a  gallery  that  extended 
along  the  wall  of  a  tower  near  by.  As  soon  aa 
ne  had  finished  what  seemed  to  be  some  sort  of 


212  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  servant's  explanation  interpreted  by  Mr.  George. 

explanation,  he  left  the  party  standing  in  the 
court,  and  returned  to  his  work. 

"  He  says,"  remarked  Mr.  George,  "  that  there 
is  a  man  coming  to  show  us  the  castle." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  I  know  by  the  signs  that  he  made,"  replied 
Mr.  George.  "  Besides,  I  heard  him  say  schhss- 
vogt." 

"  What  is  schloss-vogt  ?  "  asked  Rollo. 

"  That  was  the  ancient  name  for  the  officer  who 
kept  the  keys  of  a  castle,"  replied  Mr.  George, 
"  and  in  restoring  this  castle  they  thought  they 
would  reestablish  the  old  office.  So  they  call  the 
man  who  keeps  the  keys  the  schloss-vogt" 

In  a  few  minutes  the  schloss-vogt  came.  He 
was  dressed  in  the  ancient  costume.  He  wore  a 
black  velvet  frock  coat,  and  green  velvet  cap, 
both  made  in  a  very  antique  and  curious  fashion, 
after  the  pattern  of  those  worn,  in  ancient  days, 
by  the  officers  who  had  the  custody  of  the  keys 
in  the  baronial  castles. 

The  schloss-vogt  conducted  his  visitors  all  ovei 
the  edifice  that  was  under  his  charge.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  describe  the  variety  of  halls, 
corridors,  courts,  towers,  ramparts,  and  battle- 
ments which  Rollo  and  Minnie  were  led  to  see. 
They  went  from  one  to  another,  until  they  were 
at  length   completely   bewildered  with   the  in 


Rheinstein.  213 

A  description  of  the  details  of  the  restored  castle 

tricacy,  as  well  as  dazzled  by  the  magnificence,  of 
the  place.  There  were  suites  of  most  beautiful 
apartments,  with  polished  floors,  and  painted 
walls,  and  furniture  of  the  most  curious  and  an- 
tique description.  The  chairs,  the  tables,  the 
cabinets,  and  the  beds  of  these  rooms  were  all 
of  the  strangest  forms  ;  and  though  they  were  of 
very  elaborate  and  splendid  workmanship,  being 
richly  carved  and  inlaid  with  mosaic  work,  and 
often  ornamented  with  mountings  of  silver,  they 
all  wore  a  very  antique  and  venerable  air,  which 
was  extremely  imposing.  The  rooms  were-  of  all 
shapes  and  sizes,  and  were  arranged  and  con- 
nected with  each  other  in  the  most  odd  and  sin- 
gular fashion,  as  the  external  walls  which  enclosed 
them  were  extremely  irregular  in  plan,  being 
conformed  in  a  great  measure  to  the  shape  of  the 
rocks  on  which  the  castle  was  founded.  The 
schloss-vogt  was  continually  leading  his  party,  as 
he  guided  them  through  the  rooms,  into  some 
unexpected  and  curious  place  —  a  little  cabinet, 
built  on  an  angle  of  the  wall ;  a  winding  stair 
case,  opening  suddenly  in  a  corner,  and  leading 
up  to  a  watchtower,  or  down  to  a  court  ;  a 
balcony  overhanging  a  precipice,  and  command- 
ing a  most  magnificent  view  up  and  down  the 
river  ;  or  some  other  curious  nook  or  corner 
which  in  the  snugness  and  coziness  of  its  seclu 


214         R  o  l  l  o 

ON 

THE 

Rhine. 

The  ancient  armor. 

The  iron  gauntlet. 

sion,  and  the  beauty  of  its  adornments,  f.lled  the 
hearts  of  Rollo  and  Minnie  with  delight. 

There  were  a  great  many  specimens  of  ancient 
arms  and  armor,  hung  up  in  various  halls  in 
the  castle,  all  of  the  most  quaint  and  curious 
forms,  but  yet  of  the  most  elaborate  and  beau- 
tiful workmanship.  There  were  swords,  and 
daggers,  and  bows  and  arrows,  and  spurs,  and 
shields,  and  coats  of  mail,  and  every  other  species 
of  weapons,  offensive  and  defensive,  that  the  war- 
riors of  the  middle  ages  were  accustomed  to  use. 
Rollo  was  most  interested  in  the  bows  and  arrows. 
They  were  of  great  size,  and  were  made  in  a 
style  of  workmanship,  and  ornamented  with 
mountings  and  decorations,  which  Rollo  had 
never  dreamed  of  seeing  in  bows  and  arrows. 
Among  the  other  articles  of  armor,  the  schlo?i- 
vogt  showed  the  party  a  gauntlet,  as  it  is  called  ; 
that  is,  an  iron  glove,  which  was  worn  in  ancient 
times  to  defend  the  hand  from  the  cuts  of  swords 
and  sabres.  The  inside  of  the  glove  —  I  mean 
the  part  which  covered  the  inside  of  the  hand  — 
was  of  leather  ;  but  the  back  was  formed  of  iron 
scales  made  to  slide  over  each  other,  so  as  to 
allow  the  hand  to  open  and  shut  freely,  without 
making  any  opening  in  the  iron.  Mr.  George 
tried  this  glove  on,  and  so,  in  fact,  did  Rollo  and 
Minnie.      They  were  all  surprised  to  find  how 


Rheinstein.  215 

The  furniture.  The  rooms.  Queer  comers. 

well  it  fitted  to  the  hand,  and  how  freely  the 
fingers  cor  Id  be  moved  while  it  was  on.  The 
schloss-vogt  said  that  a  man  could  write  with  it ; 
and  Mr.  George  placed  his  hand,  with  the  glove 
upon  it,  in  the  proper  position  for  writing,  and 
then  moved  his  fingers  to  and  fro,  as  if  there  had 
been  a  pen  between  them. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  think  I  could  write  with  it 
very  well." 

All  the  furniture  of  the  rooms  was  of  a  very 
quaint  and  curious  description,  while  yet  it  was 
very  rich  and  magnificent.  There  were  elegant 
bedsteads  of  carved  ebony  surmounted  with 
silken  curtains  and  canopies  of  the  most  gorgeous 
description.  There  were  cabinets  inlaid  with 
silver  and  pearl,  and  elegant  cameos  and  mosaics, 
and  a  profusion  of  other  such  articles,  all  of 
which  Rollo  had  very  little  time  to  examine,  as 
the  schloss-vogt  led  the  party  forward  from  one 
room  to  another  without  much  delay. 

The  rooms  themselves,  in  respect  to  form  and 
arrangement,  were  almost  as  curious  as  the  arti- 
cles which  they  contained.  Every  one  seemed 
different  from  the  rest.  "You  were  constantly 
coming  into  the  strangest  and  most  unexpected 
places.  There  were  cabinets,  and  wide  halls,  and 
intricate  winding  corridors,  and  open  courts,  and 
vaulted  passages,  and  balconies,  payed  below  and 


216  RoLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 

The  airy  staircase.  Minnie's  bouquet  of  flowers. 

arched  over  above.  At  one  place  there  was  a 
light  iron  staircase  built  on  the  outside  of  a  round 
lower,  and  as  the  tower  itself  was  built  on  the 
pinnacle  of  an  overhanging  rock,  you  seemed,  in 
ascending  the  staircase,  to  be  poised  in  the  air, 
with  the  rocks  that  lined  the  shore  of  the  river 
beneath  your  feet,  hundreds  of  feet  below. 

After  rambling  about  the  castle  for  half  an 
hour,  the  party  returned  to  the  gate  where  they 
had  come  in,  and  the  schloss-vogt  bade  them  good 
by.  He  gave  Minnie  a  little  bouquet  of  flowers 
as  she  came  away.  They  were  flowers  which  he 
had  gathered  for  her,  one  by  one,  from  the  plants 
growing  in  the  various  balconies,  and  in  little 
parterres  in  the  courtyards,  which  they  passed  in 
going  about  the  castle.  Minnie  was  very  much 
pleased  with  this  bouquet. 

"  I  mean  to  press  some  of  the  flowers,"  said 
she,  "  and  keep  them  for  a  souvenir." 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "  I'll  help  you  press  them. 
I've  got  a  pressing  apparatus  at  home." 

"  Well,"  said  Minnie,  in  a  tone  of  great  satis- 
faction. "  And  then,  when  they  are  pressed,  I'll 
give  you  one  of  them." 

So  the  party  went  down  the  zigzag  path  till 
they  came  to  the  main  road  at  the  bank  of  the 
river,  and  there  getting  into  their  carriage  again, 
they  rode  home  to  the  hotel. 


Rheinstein.  217 


The  scenery  of  the  Ebine  above  Bingen. 


Conclusion. 

Our  travellers  had  now  passed  through  all 
that  portion  of  the  Rhine  which  contains  the 
castles  and  the  romantic  scenery.  Above  Bin- 
gen the  valley  of  the  Rhine  widens  ;  that  is,  the 
mountains,  instead  of  crowding  in  close  to  the 
river,  recede  from  it  many  miles,  enclosing  a 
broad  and  level,  but  very  fertile  plain,  through 
the  midst  of  which  the  river  flows  between  low 
banks,  and  with  endless  meanderings.  The  level 
country  through  which  the  river  thus  flows  is  in- 
expressibly beautiful,  being  divided  into  magnifi- 
cent fields,  and  cultivated  every  where  like  a 
garden.  It  presents  to  the  view  a  broad  expanse 
of  the  richest  verdure  and  beauty,  but  it  cannot 
be  seen  from  the  steamboats  on  the  river.  Trav- 
ellers are,  accordingly,  accustomed  to  leave  the 
river  at  Mayence,  a  short  distance  above  Bingen, 
and  to  go  on  up  to  Strasbourg  by  the  railway. 
This  was  the  plan  which  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
pursued. 

From  Strasbourg,  Mr.  George  took  passage 
for  Paris  by  a  railway  train  which  left  Stras- 


218  ROLLO     ON     THE     RHINE. 


Returning  to  Paris. 


The  night  train. 


Bolio  asleep. 


bourg  in  the  afternoon,  so  that  they  travelled  all 
night.  This  was  Rollo's  plan.  He  wished  to 
see  how  "  it  would  seem,"  he  said,  to  be  travel- 
ling: in  the  cars  at  midnight. 


THE   NIGHT   JOURNEY. 


He,  however,  fell  asleep  soon  after  dark,  and 
slept  soundly  all  the  way. 


